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THE JOURNAL OF

EARLY SOUTHERN

DECORATIVE

ARTS

Ml M)\j

May 1994 Volume xx, Number 1
The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts

The Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, published twice
yearly by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA),
presents research on decorative arts made in the South prior to 1820,
with an emphasis on object studies in a material culture context.
Queries relating to submissions, book reviews, and other editorial mat-
ters should be sent to the Editor, Journal of Early Southern Decorative
Arts, MESDA, P.O. Box 10310, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27108-
0310.

The views expressed here are solely the responsibility of the contrib-
utors.

MESDA is an educational institution with the established purpose
of collecting, preserving, documenting, and researching representative
examples of southern decorative arts and craftsmanship from the i6oos
to 1820. The museum's collection and research facilities are open to the
public for general viewing and research.

MESDA is owned and operated by Old Salem, Inc., the nonprofit
corporation responsible for the restoration and operation of Old
Salem, a Moravian Congregation Town founded in 1766.

THE JOURNAL OF

EARLY SOUTHERN

DECORATIVE

ARTS

May 1994 Volume xx, Number 1

The preparation of the Journal was made possible in part

by a grant from the Research Tools and Reference Works

program of the National Endowment for the

Humanities, an independent federal agency.

Photographs in this issue are by the staff of the Museum of
Early Southern Decorative Arts except where noted.

Some back issues of the Journal are available.

Typesetting by Kachergis Book Design, Pittsboro, North Carolina
Printed by Braun-Brumfield, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Contents

"That They May Long Remember Me. . . .
Henry Lamond, Cabinetmaker from Edinburgh,
North Britten"

ROBERT F. DOARES 1

The Wheeler House in Murfreesboro, North Carohna,
1809-1832: Insights from Documentary Research

AUDREYH.MICHIE 45

BOOK REVIEWS

Luke Beckerdite, ed., American Fiuiiitiire

BRADFORDL.RAUSCHENBERG 89

Carl Lounsbury, An Illustrated Glossary of
Early Southern Architecture and Landscape

JOHNLARSON 94

Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive

in 2010 witii funding from

University of Nortii Carolina at Chapel Hill

http://www.archive.org/details/journalofearlyso2011994muse

'That They May Long Remember Me . .

Henry Lamond, Cabinetmaker From Edinburgh,
North Britten"

ROBERT F. DOARES, JR.

In The Furniture of Coastal North Carohna 1700-1820, author
John Bivins identifies ten pieces of furniture made in the coastal
plain of North Carolina that can be attributed definitively to spe-
cific furniture makers by signature or label.' Only one of these, a
Fayetteville piece with a printed label, has its origin in the Cape
Fear region of the coastal plain (fig. 1). No cabinetmaker's actual
written signature was found on any furniture documented from
the southeastern coastal plain before 1820.

Bivins does make brief reference, however, to a Scottish-born
cabinetmaker named "Henry Lamont" who was active in Robeson
County in the lower Cape Fear, according to 1850 census records.
Since publication of The Furniture of Coastal North Carolina in
1988, a private study in the Robeson County area has documented
a number of pieces of early- to mid-nineteenth-century furniture
by Henry Lamond (as the cabinetmaker himself spelled his sur-
name). Ten of these pieces are signed and dated, and four others
are attributable to Lamond by style, workmanship, and prove-
nance. The signed pieces range in date from 1833 to 1857, and all
have Robeson County origins. This furniture by Henry Lamond
comprises the largest body of attributed and signed work of any
early North Carolina cabinetmaker discovered to date. Although
the Lamond furniture considered here was built later than the

MAY 1994 1

1. Detail of John MacRae, A New Map of the State of North Carohna, 1833, show-
ing the Cape Fear region. The arrow indicates Fayetteville. From W. P. Gumming,
North Carohna in Maps (Raleigh: State Department of Archives and History,
1966), plate X.

usual MESDA period of focus, Lamond was surely active in the
furniture trade before 1820; furthermore, his work reflects the
influence of his earlier neoclassical training. The documentation
of these pieces provides an unprecedented opportunity for
detailed study of the life and work of a single North Carolina
coastal plain cabinetmaker, and the results of this research indicate
that further study is definitely warranted in this heretofore mea-
gerly documented part of North Carolina.

Henry Lamond was born on All Hallows' Eve, 31 October 1785, in
the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the son of John Lamond

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

and Margaret Elliot, whose marriage was recorded in St. Cuth-
bert's parish, Edinburgh, on 29 June 1776.- Henry had at least two
older siblings: John, born on 14 July 1782, and Martha, born on 30
March 1784. Christening records for the Lamond children identify
their father John as "Indweller" or "Residenter," variant designa-
tions for a citizen residing within the boundaries of the Ancient
Royalty of Edinburgh proper. Likewise, the names and location of
the three parish churches where the Lamond children were chris-
tened place the family squarely in the heart of old Edinburgh in
the early 1780s. At the time of his marriage, John Lamond was
listed as a "Gentleman's Servt. at Dean House," a private estate
near Edinburgh. His profession is given in the 1782 church record
as "Servant in the College of Edinb."; he was probably a so-called
"servitor," a sort of glorified porter, assigned to assist university
professors in minor custodial and administrative matters. Of John
Lamond's wife, Margaret Elliot, little is known except that she was
the daughter of John Elliot, "gardener at Dean Path."'

Henry was christened on his twelfth day of life, 12 November
1785, in High Kirk Parish, St. Giles Cathedral, the most prestigious
parish in the Scottish capital (fig. 2). St. Giles — Catholic before the
Reformation, Episcopal for part of the seventeenth century, and
mother church of Presbyterianism since 1690 — had been grossly
altered in form some two centuries before Henry Lamond's birth.
The interior of the great Gothic church had been partitioned with
masonry walls, and separate areas of the building served the public
simultaneously as four socially distinct parishes of the Church of
Scotland-each with its own entrance.^ For Henry's christening, the
Lamonds would have entered the choir, the part of the church des-
ignated as High Kirk.

Notwithstanding the seedy appearance of much of the Old
Town — nicknamed "Auld Reekie" for the smoky pollution from its
many chimneys — the Edinburgh into which Henry Lamond was
born was acclaimed in its heyday as the literary and artistic capital
of Europe. The planning and building of the spacious New Town
of Edinburgh (fig. 3) had begun in 1767 under the direction of
architect James Craig, and construction would continue apace for
the next three quarters of a century. The artistry of Edinburgh

MAY 1994 3

2. St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, as it appeared ca. 1870. Photograph courtesy of the
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

bookbinders, silversmiths, and other craftsmen peaked during the
period. Literature flourished as well, culminating in the genius of
Sir Walter Scott. Scott's mentor, the novelist Henry Mackenzie,
author of The Man of Feeling, was the foremost man of letters in
the Scottish capital in the 1780s; John and Margaret Lamond
undoubtedly had the famous novelist in mind when they chris-
tened their new son Henry Mackenzie in St. Giles in 1785.

No records have surfaced that give precise information about
Lamond's early years, the time between his christening in St. Giles
in 1785 and his appearance nearly thirty-five years later in the
United States in public records in southeastern North Carolina.
Lamond's own penciled inscriptions on pieces of his furniture sug-

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

E-

-4''^''/y-^i^.^.^\jra,'

gest, however, that he trained as a cabinetmaker in Edinburgh
before emigrating to America. Several social and economic factors
affecting the Scottish furniture trade before 1820 prompted the
emigration of many furniture makers from the Edinburgh of Lam-
ond's youth to America and elsew^here.

Edinburgh was already the acknowledged center of Scottish fur-
niture manufacture before Henry Lamond's birth; the quality fur-
niture that the city's cabinet shops produced has been unfairly
overshadowed by a historical preoccupation with London style.
Edinburgh's furniture industry expanded rapidly in the third
quarter of the eighteenth century because of the demand for fur-
nishings for the spacious new homes being built in the New Town
across the North Loch. Many residents of the medieval city were
relieved to escape their cramped quarters for the private luxury of
a well-appointed home in the new Georgian Edinburgh. Others
were resistant to change and chose to remain in the Old Town. The
furniture makers, for the most part, stayed in their shops on the
High Street, filling orders which conformed to an ever more stan-
dardized set of conventions for the proper decoration of a New
Town house. Standard prices for these socially mandated furniture
forms were eventually codified in the Cabinet Maker's Price Book,
published in Edinburgh in 1805.' The firm of Young and Trotter
was the first furniture company to relocate from the High Street
and to open, in 1772, the first furniture wareroom in the New
Town, situated on Princes Street near the New Market (fig. 4).

For a generation before 1790, the Edinburgh furniture trade had
been dominated by the respected firm of Francis Brodie, which
supplied most of the furniture for Town College, as the University
was then called.'' The importance of the Brodies came abruptly to
an end, however, with the death of Francis Brodie in 1782 and the
subsequent execution of his son, "Deacon" William Brodie, in
1788. William Brodie had inherited his father's furniture enterprise
and his seat on the Edinburgh Town Council, but in short order he
had squandered both his father's fortune and good name by turn-
ing to hard drinking, gambling, and housebreaking. After master-
minding several sensational robberies of private and public build-
ings in the capital, including the theft of the ancient university

6 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

4. Princes Street, Edinburgh. Engraving, c. 1800, showing the firm of Young, Trotter,
and Hamilton (corner buiUing at left). Courtesy of David Jones, University of St.
Andrew's, Fife.

mace, William Brodie was eventually apprehended, convicted, and
hung/ One cannot help but wonder if members of the Lamond
family were among the crowd of forty thousand onlookers who
turned out to witness Deacon Brodie's execution in Edinburgh on
1 October 1788.

The demise of the Brodies fortuitously cleared the way for the
rise of their competitors, Edinburgh cabinetmakers Young and
Trotter. Established by 1760, the firm of Young and Trotter (later
Young, Trotter, and Hamilton), with its wareroom on Princes
Street, had by 1790 attained a preeminence among Scottish furni-
ture makers that it would enjoy for the next half century. William
Trotter, who became sole owner of the firm about 1805, would

MAY 1994

control a monopoly in the furniture market for the first third of
the new century until his death in 1833. It thus fell to Trotter and
his competitors, most notably Morison and Co. and Bruce and
Burns, to rescue the reputation of the Edinburgh cabinet trade,
which had been badly compromised by the escapades of William
Brodie."

William Trotter's dominance of the furniture trade at the end of
the eighteenth century notwithstanding, there were still many
other smaller shops in Edinburgh. It is almost certain that Henry
Lamond entered into apprenticeship with a cabinetmaker in Edin-
burgh about 1795, since most boys apprenticed at the age of nine
or ten. Henry Lamond's name does not appear in the "Register of
Edinburgh Apprentices" for the appropriate period, but this is not
surprising in view of the fact that apprenticeship records from the
late eighteenth century are, in general, sadly incomplete. By this
time the ancient system of apprenticeship was already giving way
to the pressures of new forms of industrial organization, and only
a fraction of masters and apprentices continued to fulfill the letter
of the law by legally registering their contracts. By 1790, most
apprenticeships were not recorded at all. Be that as it may, in the
normal course of events Henry Lamond would have completed his
training by about 1802, as the usual length of apprenticeship for
cabinetmaking was six or seven years.*"

Despite the burgeoning furniture trade in Edinburgh at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, the time was not especially
favorable for young cabinetmakers like Lamond to establish them-
selves independently or to aspire to great fortunes. Francis Bam-
ford maintains that very few Edinburgh furniture makers became
wealthy; indeed, a good many of them died in poverty.'" The tradi-
tion of commissioned furniture, built to order by individual cabi-
netmakers for specific patrons, waned with the advent of show-
rooms of ready-made furniture built from standard patterns by
large firms like Trotter's. This resulted in increased competition
among the rest of the city's furniture makers for the remaining
custom cabinet market. Some of these found advantage in leaving
Edinburgh to set up shop in the smaller cities and regional centers
of Scotland, while others emigrated to America and elsewhere."

8 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

Whatever Henry Lamond's motivation for leaving Scotland may
have been, his name first appears in America on a deed dated
19 January 1820, registered in the county of Robeson in the south-
eastern coastal plain of North Carolina. This deed recorded the
twenty-dollar purchase by a George Thompson and Henry Lam-
ond of a forty-four-acre farm in Robeson County. Lamond was
thirty-four years old at the time. The conveyance referred to both
men as residents of the town of Fayetteville, administrative seat
of the county of Cumberland, which lies just to the north of
Robeson County. By another deed dated 21 October of the same
year, Lamond acquired George Thompson's half interest in the
farm for twenty-two dollars and fifty cents, becoming sole owner
of the property. Henry Lamond thus appeared in the 1820 census
as a new resident of Robeson County; the unnamed adult female
listed in the household was undoubtedly his wife Christian. Three
years later, on 28 July 1823, Lamond executed a somewhat confus-
ing deed, perhaps as security for a loan, in which he transferred
title to his forty-four acres and two much smaller tracts to Duncan
Lamond, who may or may not have been a relative. This transfer
was not permanent, however, for Henry Lamond continued to
reside on his forty-four acres by the Stage Road, near the settle-
ment of Saint Pauls in Robeson County, for the next fifty-two
years. '-

How and when Henry Lamond first came to Fayetteville, a thriv-
ing center of Scottish settlement and one of the provisional capi-
tals of North Carolina in the early post-Revolutionary period, and
why he resettled in isolated, rural Robeson County, is not known.
Lamond's move from Fayetteville did occur, coincidentally or not,
on the heels of the national economic panic of 1819. In any case,
the town of Fayetteville on the upper Cape Fear and the port of
Wilmington at the river's mouth defined a ninety-mile corridor of
settlement and trade that was influenced heavily by Scottish immi-
gration beginning in the early eighteenth century. Scots arriving at
Wilmington initially established settlements all along the Cape
Fear River corridor. Lands more removed from the river's banks,
including the area that became Robeson County in 1787, absorbed
the overflow of settlers well into the first decades of the nineteenth

MAY 1994

century.'- Henry Lamond seems to have been borne, at least for a
time, by this tide.

Whatever personal circumstances he had left behind in Edin-
burgh, and then again in Fayetteville, Henry Lamond most
assuredly attained a modicum of independence and tranquility in
early Robeson County (fig. 5). Today still North Carolina's largest
county in land area, the Robeson County of the early nineteenth
century was a vast, flat coastal plain landscape of pine forests and
forbidding swamps. Transportation problems contributed to the
relative isolation of the county's small farmers and planters, pri-
marily Scottish and English families who had begun filtering into
the region from the Cape Fear and from neighboring South Car-
olina in the 1730s. These European settlers and their African slaves
shared the county's borders with a small population of mixed-
blooded native Americans, the ancestors of the present-day Lum-
bee Indians. The only town of any size was the county seat of Lum-
berton, which was founded on the banks of the Lumber River, or
Drowning Creek, when the North Carolina legislature carved
Robeson from the western part of old Bladen County in 1787.
Robeson's agrarian populace was dependent on some overland
trade with Fayetteville to the north and, to some extent, on the
Lumber and Pee Dee river route to the sea at Georgetown, South
Carolina.'^

Henry Lamond settled in the northeastern part of Robeson
County, an area of fairly dense Scottish setdement not far from the
Cumberland County line. According to a probate document from
1872, Lamond's farm lay "on the Fayetteville Road about fourteen
miles from Lumberton," near the little community established by
1799 around Saint Pauls Presbyterian Church.'' By no means a
farmer by birth, Lamond was nevertheless actively engaged in
agriculture on his homestead on the Lumberton- Fayetteville stage
road for the rest of his long life. In 1850, Henry Lamond, age 65,
and wife Christian, age 60, both natives of Scotland, appeared by
name in the Robeson County census survey of that year. Although
Lamond listed his profession as cabinetmaker, the supplementary
agricultural schedule for the 1850 census indicates that he also
occupied himself as a small farmer.'"

10 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

REMARKS
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MADE FROM ACTUAL SURVEYS

By John M'r Duffie.C £

5. John MacDtiffie, Map of Robeson County, fro??; D. P. McEachenu ed., All About
Robeson County (Lumberton, N.C.: W. W. McDianuid, 1884), showing the
approximate location ofLamond'sfarm. Courtesy of Charles Thomas Smith,
Hiimphrey-Williams-Smith Plantation, Lumberton.

MAY 1994

In the 1850 census he also reported income from the production
of unspecified home manufactures in the amount of twenty-five
dollars. We may well assume that this included at least some cabi-
net work done for his local patrons. Indeed, two thirds of the
known signed and dated examples of Lamond's Robeson County
furniture pieces are from the decade from 1848 to 1858. All told,
Lamond's life in antebellum Robeson County would be reasonably
characterized as that of an independent yeoman farmer and crafts-
man who enjoyed the flexibility inherent in plying his two comple-
mentary trades as the seasons and other exigencies allowed.

A number of the families who own inherited pieces of Lamond's
work today share some oral tradition about the "itinerant" Scots-
man who designed and built furniture for their ancestors from
their own home-cured lumber. The term "itinerant" is, of course,
inaccurate in view of Lamond's half century of residency in Saint
Pauls Township. Imbedded in that word choice, however, is the
notion that Lamond traveled to visit his rural patrons and con-
sulted with them on site, in their homes, about their wishes and
needs. In his rural Robeson setting, Lamond in a small way revived
the tradition of custom furniture manufacture, the general decline
of which may have prompted him to leave his native Edinburgh
for North Carolina. In any case, the humble farmers and planters
of early Robeson County and their wives, most of whom led truly
unadorned lives, may well have considered themselves fortunate to
have access to the services of an Edinburgh-trained furniture
maker there in the backwoods of the coastal plain upcountry.

If Lamond attended an area church, his name does not appear
on the surviving membership rosters of the chief Presbyterian
churches near his home.'' Lamond's spirituality did find certain
expression in his relationship to the brotherhood of Ancient, Free,
and Accepted Masons. Lamond embellished each of his furniture
signatures with mystical symbols and legends of the Masonic
order, and on the drawer bottom of one desk he plainly stated that
he was a Mason. It is not known when or where Lamond was
elected to the fraternity, but it is clear that he was already a brother
in 1834, the date of the earliest of these inscriptions.'^

When St. Alban's Masonic Lodge was organized in the town of

12 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

Lumberton in 1847, Henry Lamond became a charter member and
officer. His name appears on the charter as the lodge's first Senior
Warden, and he remained active in the organization as member
and officer for many years.'' Lamond's particular devotion to the
lodge was expressed in his w^ill of 21 October 1864, in which he
named St. Alban's as ultimate, sole beneficiary of his estate upon
the death of his beloved wife Christian.-" Unfortunately, St. Alban's
Lodge was destroyed by fire at least three times in the nineteenth
century. Besides the loss of most of the lodge's earliest records, no
fixtures or furnishings have survived from the early lodge build-
ings.-' Thus perished whatever decorative or functional items of
furniture Henry Lamond most assuredly supplied the lodge he had
helped to found.

We glean a few insights into Lamond's later years from agricul-
tural census statistics from i860 and 1870, which reflect a steady
decline in the productivity of his farm with the onset of old age.
Lamond's twenty improved acres of 1850 had shrunk to fifteen by
i860, and to only eight by 1870. The value of his land declined as
well, from two hundred and fifty dollars in 1850 to one hundred
dollars in i860, and forty dollars during Reconstruction in 1870.
According to this last census, Lamond still kept one working ox
and four hogs valued at thirty dollars and produced ten bushels of
corn and five bushels of sweet potatoes, probably as feed for the
livestock. He estimated the value of the year's farm produce at
sixty dollars, slaughtered livestock valued at thirty dollars, and
produced home manufactures in the amount often dollars."

Despite this report of sustained albeit reduced activity, it is
unlikely that Henry Lamond was capable of managing his farm on
his own in 1870. He was then eighty-five years old and his wife was
eighty; the general census for Saint Pauls Township described him
as "old, infirm, no occupation."-- Records of outstanding debts set-
tled in probate after his death, indicate that for the last three years
of his life, Lamond was purchasing many basic necessities on
credit: food, firewood, feed for livestock, the services of a washer-
woman— and whiskey.-^

The 1870 census recorded two other members of the Lamond
household — a "daughter" Sarah and a six-year-old black servant,

MAY 1994 13

whose name is illegible. It is unclear what the relationship of these
two females to the octogenarian Lamonds may have been, and
there is no other record of them before or after this one reference
in the census. In any case, Lamond's last two years of life must
have been difficult and lonely, as he suffered penury, ill health, and
the loss of his wife. Though not a slaveholder himself, the eighty-
year-old Lamond had nevertheless experienced the collapse of the
old order in the South in 1865. The worries of his old age were
surely exacerbated by the uncertainties of the Reconstruction era
and the violent Indian rebellion in Robeson County that began at
the end of the Civil War and continued for two years after Lam-
ond's death until 1874.-'

Annual returns from St. Alban's Masonic Lodge No. 114 in Lum-
berton to the Grand Lodge of North Carolina in Raleigh reported
the death of Henry Lamond in the Masonic year AL 5872, or 1872.
Robeson County court records place Lamond's death more pre-
cisely near the beginning of June, as his will was probated on 12
June 1872.-'^ He had lived eighty-seven years. Lamond's Masonic
brother Alfred Rowland was appointed executor in place of his
deceased father John A. Rowland, whom Lamond had designated
in the will. The will directed the executor to use the entire estate
for the support of Christian Lamond during her lifetime; any
property left at her death was then to be sold at public auction.
Apparently Lamond's wife had predeceased him sometime in the
two years since the 1870 census, for Lamond's personal property
was inventoried soon after his death and sold at auction on 6 July
1872 for a total of fifty-six dollars and eighty-seven cents. The farm
sold at auction to neighbor Colin Baxley on 2 December 1872 for
one hundred and five dollars. Except for twenty-five dollars for the
executor, the proceeds from the estate sale were to pass to St.
Alban's Masonic Lodge No. 114 at Lumberton.-'

For the most part, the inventory of Lamond's personal property
contains items typical of the estate of a farmer. The few hand tools
listed that a cabinetmaker might have used — saws, a hatchet, a
screw driver, a hammer, and an old square — could have belonged
to anyone living on a farm; perhaps Lamond had sold most of his
woodworking tools as his health and ability to work dechned. The

14 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

listing of his household furniture is surprisingly meager as well: a
bedstead, a chest, a few chairs, three tables, two benches, a book-
case, a clock, and a meal chest. Except for an ox, which sold for fif-
teen dollars, and the clock, which brought ten, not a single item
sold for more than two dollars.

Through pure serendipity, on the first page of the earliest minute
book to survive the repeated fires at St. Alban's Masonic Lodge, in
a report dated 16 July 1875, an order reads: "that the Finance Com-
mittee report at our next regular meeting the settlement with the
administrator of Bro. Lammon [sic]." The finance committee,
however, deferred its report on the matter of Lamond's estate for
nearly four years. Finally, on 17 March 1879, the committee
reported that "the amount of the assets of the Personal estate in
the hands of Bro. Alfred Rowland Exr. appears to be . . . one hun-
dred and sixty one dollars and eighty seven cents." The cabinet-
maker's bequest to his Masonic brothers was an amount roughly
equivalent to the Lodge's entire budget for one year. It came to
them during the economically depressed decade of the 1870s, when
many of the brothers could not scrape together the money for
annual dues and at a time when the Lumberton Masons were
without their own meeting place. A building committee for a new
Lodge had been appointed in January 1879, just before the com-
mittee report on Lamond's estate. The Scotsman's legacy probably
made possible the completion of the project, which culminated in
the raising and dedication of a bell on the new building on 20
August 1880.-'

In any case, these notes from St. Alban's minute books are the
last documented references to the life and death of Fienry Lam-
ond, cabinetmaker. Whether Fienry Lamond and his wife were
buried on their Robeson County farm or in an area churchyard,
their graves are now long lost. Lamond's will made no provision
for permanent gravestones, and the simple pine boards that more
typically marked graves in this region without stone would have
since burned or rotted away. The Masons of St. Alban's Lodge dis-
banded for most of the decade of the 1880s and probably did not
memorialize Lamond beyond the usual notation in their minute
book. Lamond's farm — the most likely site of his final resting

MAY 1994 15

place — has changed hands several times since 1872, and its exact
boundaries are no longer discernible. Indeed, Henry Lamond
would have been forgotten completely over the century and a
quarter since his death but for the durable quality of the furniture
he produced and his penchant for inscribing with pencil the pieces
he built.

It is impossible to determine just how much furniture Henry
Lamond produced in his long life, but the relatively large number
of surviving Lamond pieces suggests that there once existed a
prodigious quantity of cabinet work by the man. The fourteen
examples of Lamond's work discovered to date comprise the
largest body of early North Carolina coastal plain furniture by a
single identifiable artisan. Indeed, the discovery of such a quantity
of work by one cabinetmaker is rare for the South as a region. The
survival of these many examples reveals little, though, about Lam-
ond's overall rate of production during his lifetime. Lamond was
probably active in the furniture trade for more than sixty years, a
length of time sufficient to leave a considerable legacy of work,
even at an unhurried pace.

A study of Henry Lamond's furniture is of interest in several
important respects, though at first consideration a body of post-
1830 work by a cabinetmaker from rural Robeson County, North
Carolina, would seem to lie outside MESDA's focus of interest. It is
evident that the part of early Bladen County which, in 1787,
became Robeson County never had towns large enough to support
an established cabinetmaking tradition. The county's residents
were dependent on commerce with other places, like Fayetteville,
North Carolina, and Georgetown, South Carolina, for many com-
modities, including some of their furniture. Moreover, stylistic
evidence suggests that when Henry Lamond came to Robeson
County in 1820, he brought characteristics of two different furni-
ture traditions, Edinburgh and Fayetteville. This elicits the ques-
tion of just which British or American traditions may have influ-
enced this Scottish immigrant's Robeson County work. Finally, in
view of the great fires of 1792 and 1831, which twice devastated the
town of Fayetteville and contributed to the relative scarcity of early

16 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

VIEW OP PAYETTEVILIiB.

6. Early view of Fayetteville before the i8}i fire. Engraving by }. Cloquet. Private col-
lection. MRF S-2294.

Cape Fear furniture today, we may wonder what strains of "lost"
Fayetteville style in particular may be preserved in the craft of this
Edinburgh native who sojourned in North Carolina's early capital
on the Cape Fear (fig. 6).

The relative isolation of nineteenth-century Robeson County
works to our advantage in the quest for answers to these questions.
Henry Lamond's move from the town of Fayetteville to rural Saint
Pauls Township in 1820 effectively removed him from the main-
stream of changing urban taste and style. It is not surprising, then,
that Lamond's works are primarily retardataire examples of the
earlier neoclassical style, strongly evocative of Fayetteville cabinet-
work prior to 1820. This is understandable in light of the conserva-
tive preferences of Lamond's rural patrons in mid-nineteenth-cen-

MAY 1994

tury Robeson, who would have required of him custom furniture
in the comfortably familiar style of an earlier generation. In serv-
ing this conservative market, Lamond never completely aban-
doned what was, by mid-century, the outmoded neoclassical style.

The appearance of Henry Lamond's furniture, and of Fayet-
teville furniture in general, has its roots in the traditions of his
native northern Britain of the late eighteenth century. Jonathan
Prown, in his discussion of the furniture of Petersburg, Virginia,
makes much of the influence of the mid-eighteenth century British
preference for neat and plain forms on American furniture in the
coastal South, even as late as 1820.-- Lamond's furniture certainly
retains some of the straightforward elements of this simple style,
including typical scratch-beaded drawer fronts and minimal deco-
ration, which Prown sees as conservative influences on the devel-
opment of neoclassical fashion after 1780 in some Tidewater urban
centers of the United States. The persistence in Lamond's work of
neat and plain influences, as well as of decidedly neoclassical ele-
ments like the use of tapered legs, makes the discussion of Lamond
germane to the study of the influence of earlier neat and plain
forms on southern neoclassical style.

Perhaps the furniture form most representative of Lamond in
the Cape Fear region is the sideboard. Six Henry Lamond side-
boards, five of them signed, have been discovered to date. These
sideboards span three decades and provide, in a sense, the broad-
est view of Lamond's career. Although all are distinctly attributable
to Lamond by method of construction, the variation among them
does reveal some metamorphosis of style over time. These side-
boards also hint at what sort of furniture Lamond may have made
prior to his move from Fayetteville in 1820.

Although constructed in Robeson County after 1830, Henry
Lamond's sideboards are stylistically related to the general group
of documented Fayetteville sideboards (fig. 7) from the neoclassi-
cal period up to about 1820. Both groups of sideboards are charac-
terized by simple lines and framing, tapered legs, exposed pinning
of the joints, relatively heavy dovetailing, and similar fenestration.
According to Bivins, the typical Fayetteville sideboard is three bays
wide with two or three center drawers flanked by cabinets on each

18 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

7- Fayetteville sideboard, c. 1803-1810. Walnut with yellow pine secondary. HOA
42 ", WOA 62 % ", DOA 20 'A ". Private collection. MRF S-2756.

side. There may be drawers above or below the cabinets, both
characteristic variations found in sideboards by Lamond. Most of
the documented Fayetteville sideboards and all but one of Lam-
ond's pieces are constructed primarily of walnut, with yellow pine
used as secondary wood.-"

The most notable differences between the Fayetteville sideboards
and Lamond's Robeson County work lie in the finer, superior
dovetailing on Lamond's furniture, his use of scratch- rather than
cock-beading, and the complete absence of any inlay or stringing
in Lamond's work. It is impossible to reckon whether this simplic-
ity in Lamond's cabinetwork reflects more the limited monetary
resources and conservativism of his rural Robeson County patrons
or the cabinetmaker's preference for the straightforward neat and
plain traditions of his native north Britain.

MAY 1994

The earliest known signed furniture by Lamond is a walnut and
yellow pine sideboard (fig. 8) built in the Fayetteville neoclassical
style for William C. McNeill in the Lumber Bridge vicinity of
upper Robeson County during the winter of 1833-34. The side-
board has been compromised only by the removal of the original
pulls. The arrangement of the doors and drawers clearly conforms
to an upper Cape Fear convention: three center drawers and two
side cabinets with a smaller drawer under each. This sideboard is
inscribed with pencil in three places and in typical Lamond fash-
ion. A very large inscription across the back of the piece reads:
"Henry Lamond/Cabinet Maker/from Edinburgh/NB Deer 31,
1833." On the bottom of the top center drawer is a second inscrip-
tion: "Henry Lamond/Cabinet Maker/from Edinburgh/Jany 3,
1834/NB." The inscription under the center drawer employs a bit of
scripture used in Masonic ritual: "Hol[l]iness to the Lo[u]rd/Cast
Thy Shoes Of[f] for/ Where thou standest is Hol[l]y Ground."
Beneath these words Lamond then sketched two mystical symbols
of the Masonic order, a compass and square enclosing the letter G
(for God), and a ladder, which represents spiritual striving.

Aside from the characteristics it shares with Fayetteville exam-
ples, Lamond's earliest sideboard exhibits the distinctive hallmarks
of much of the rest of his work. The drawers and unusual batten
doors are scratch-beaded and are flush with the face of the carcass.
Iron locks are mortised into the drawer fronts and attached with
screws. The top edge of the back of each drawer is about one
eighth of an inch lower than the sides, while the drawer bottoms
on the front and sides are beveled two to three inches wide and fit
into grooves. The drawer bottoms do not extend beyond the back
and are lapped over and fastened to the drawer back with square-
cut nails. Where more than one board is used for a drawer bottom,
the boards are joined with tongue and groove and run parallel to
the drawer front. There is no evidence of glue blocks on the drawer
bottoms, but the drawers stop against vertical blocks applied to the
back of the case. The bottom edges of the drawer sides serve
as runners, and there are no dust boards in this or any other Lam-
ond piece. The back of the carcass is fashioned of vertical boards
joined with tongue and groove and the interior partitions are mor-

20 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

tised into the back of the case, with the flush butts of the tenons
visible from behind. Lamond tightened these joints by driving thin
vertical wedges into grooves in the ends of the exposed tenons (fig.
8a).

A similar "Fayetteville" sideboard (fig. 9) by Henry Lamond has
descended in the Humphrey/Williams/Smith family of Robeson
County. Built of walnut and yellow pine for Richard Blount
Humphrey, the piece is signed on a center drawer bottom, "Made
by Henry Lamond/Cabinet from Edinburgh, N.B., lune 7, 1839."
Beneath this inscription are penciled the same Masonic symbols
used on the McNeill sideboard — compass and square and lad-
der— as well as two other Masonic emblems: a coffin (symbol of
human mortality) bearing the Masonic benediction "So mote it
be" and a beehive (symbol of our social interdependence) labeled
with the word "Industry" (fig. 9a). This is the only signed piece by
Lamond to bear four such Masonic emblems. Below these draw-
ings is again the cursive inscription: "Hol[l]iness to the Lord. Take
thy Shoes of[f], for where thou standest is Hol[l]y Ground." This
scriptural admonition is punctuated by a bold, florid monogram
of the initials "HL," the only example of such a monogram by
Lamond found thus far. A second, fading inscription of Lamond's
name and the date are faintly discernible on the bottom of one of
the small side drawers. Except for slight differences in dimensions
and in the retention of much more of its hardware and original
wooden drawer pulls, the Humphrey sideboard is virtually identi-
cal to the McNeill sideboard (fig. 8) built nearly six years earlier. As
in much of Lamond's work, the top of the sideboard is attached by
means of gouged screw pockets, interior on the sides and exterior
on the back.

Two signed and dated sideboards by Henry Lamond from the
end of the 1840s represent slight departures from the forms of the
two earlier sideboards; nevertheless, they are still basic variations
of familiar Fayetteville antecedents. Made just twelve months
apart, in October 1848 and October 1849, these two sideboards
have descended in the Caldwell and MacLeod families of Robeson
County respectively. They vary only minimally in dimensions and
exhibit precisely the same three-bay fenestration of three center

MAY 1994 21

-^wai

8. Sideboard, signed by Henry Lamond and dated 1833-34. Walnut with yellow pine
secondary. HOA 43 A ", WOA 61 % ", DOA 21 % ". Private collection. MRF S-20171.

8a. Detail showing Lamond's use of vertical wedges to tighten mortised joints on the
sideboard in figure 8.

9. Sideboard, signed by Henry Lamond and dated 1839. Walnut with yellow pine
secondary. HOA43'i", WOAsg/i", DOA22-<<". Private collection. MRF S-17043.

9a. Drawer bottom from the sideboard in figure 9 showing four Masonic
emblems, a scriptural quote used in Masonic ritual, and the initials "HL,
inscribed in pencil.

10. Sideboard, signed by Henry Lamond and dated 1849. The splash board is not
original. Walnut with yellow pine secondary. HOA 46'A", WOA 60%", DOA 20'A
Private collection. MRF S-20176.

drawers and two side cabinets with a drawer above each; the
MacLeod sideboard is shown here in figure 10. The use of flat-pan-
eled cabinet doors on both sideboards distinguishes these pieces
from Lamond's batten-door sideboards of the 1830s. The earher
sideboard bears three inscriptions, two of them dated 31 October
1848 (Lamond's sixty-third birthday) and the other from 1 Novem-
ber 1848. Though all three signatures on this sideboard are similar
to Lamond's usual inscriptions, the birthday inscription on the
back of the case identifies the piece as being made at "St. Pauls,
N.C."; this was the township of residence of both Lamond and the
Caldwells, for whom the sideboard was built.

Another unsigned sideboard, most likely from the 1840s and
undoubtedly the work of Lamond, was built for tailor and yeoman

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

11. Sideboard, attributed to Henry Latuond, undated. Yellow pine. HOA 43'/s",
WOA 60 'A", DOA 21 W. Private collection. MRF S-20197.

farmer Alexander Humphrey of Robeson County (fig. 11). This
sideboard is made of yellow pine throughout and is the only docu-
mented piece of furniture by Lamond that is not constructed pri-
marily of walnut. Similar in dimensions and fenestration to other
Lamond sideboards in the Fayetteville neoclassical style, the piece
has two beaded center drawers and two side cabinets with flat-
paneled doors and no smaller drawers beneath. Of note is the
four-leg design that distinguishes this humble pine sideboard from
Lamond's walnut sideboards, all of which have the more custom-
ary six legs. Although the piece is neither signed nor dated, the
capital letters L and R, penciled on the inside of the left and right
cabinet doors respectively, appear to be in Lamond's bold, cursive
script. Identical markings are found on the doors of other Lamond

MAY 1994

12. Sideboard, signed by Henry Laniond and dated March 1852. HOA 44'A", WOA
eo'A", DOA 21%". Private collection. MRF S-20178.

sideboards. The dovetails of the drawer joints on this pine side-
board are unmistakably Lamond's handiwork, as well.

Lamond's last documented sideboard (fig. 12), which has
descended in the Rowland/McMillan family of Lumberton in
Robeson County, bears a partly legible signature and date inscrip-
tion from March 1852. Although the piece exhibits many of Lam-
ond's familiar technical hallmarks, its size and fenestration repre-
sent a significant departure from the design of his earlier side-
boards. Still three bays wide, this very large sideboard displays two
full rows of drawers above a row of cabinets; two side cabinets
flank a wide center cabinet with two doors. The six drawers of the
piece are all scratch-beaded and the four doors of the three cabi-
nets are flat-paneled, as in Lamond's sideboards from the 1840s.

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

12a. Back view of sideboard in figure 12, showing the use of raised panels.

The ends of the case are also flat-paneled, the only example of such
a treatment on any of the Lamond furniture. This sideboard is,
furthermore, the only case piece examined in the study whose
back is paneled.

For the construction of the paneling of the doors and of the back
of this last sideboard, Lamond used a technique found nowhere
else in his work. Whereas the inside surfaces of the flat door panels
on other Lamond sideboards are beveled simply and set into the
grooves of the door frames, the inside surfaces of these late door
panels are precisely fielded, giving a finished look to the piece
when the doors are open. The same raised-panel treatment is seen
on a larger scale on the back of the sideboard (fig. 12a). The three
great fielded panels that comprise the back of the carcass are quite

MAY 1994

13- Sideboard, Duplin County, 1800-1825. Walnut with light and dark wood inlays,
with yellow pine secondary. HOA 43 ", WOA 6i'/s", DOA 22 ". Private collection.
MRF S-2713.

refined in comparison to the vertical board treatment of the earlier
sideboards, though Lamond's usual exposed tenons of the interior
compartment sides are visible here as well.

Lamond was able to incorporate an extra row of drawers in this
sideboard while conforming to the same basic height of his earlier
sideboards by lowering the bottom of the case to within nine
inches of the floor. The massive case, resting on six nine-inch
tapered legs, gives this late Lamond sideboard a chunky appear-
ance. It may be related to an earlier Duplin County sideboard (fig.
13) from the town of Faison, about sixty miles east of Fayetteville,
which is very similar to the Lamond sideboard in its drawer and
cabinet fenestration. Such chunky case pieces from the neoclassical

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

period appear as transition pieces in the stylistic evolution toward
the massiveness of the subsequent Empire mode. We see in Henry
Lamond's tendency toward heaviness in some of his retardataire
neoclassical furniture the only hint of a concession he seems to
have made to the influence of the contemporary Empire fashion of
the mid-nineteenth century.

The second earliest of the ten signed and dated pieces by Lam-
ond is a simple walnut and yellow pine chest of drawers (fig. 14),
which descended in the Blount/MacLeod family of Robeson
County. The piece is five drawers tall, and the drawer fronts are

14. Chest of drawers, signed by Henry Lainond and dated May 7-8 1834. Walnut
with yellow pine secondary. HOAsi'A", WOA 45}"^", DOA20%". Private collection.
MRF S-20177.

MAY 1994

15- Chest of drawers, signed by Henry Lamond and dated September } 1857. Walnut
with yellow pine secondary. HOA 42^/4", WOA 43'A", DOA 22'A". Private collection.
MRF S-20174.

decorated with simple scratch-beading, as expected. The chest
rests on squat, turned legs and is otherwise unadorned. The pen-
ciled inscription on the top right drawer reads "Henry
Lamond/Cabinet Maker/from Edinburgh/N.B./May 7, 1834."

An examination of this chest of drawers reveals two Lamond
construction techniques not found on his sideboards. First, a loose
piece of walnut veneer reveals that the drawer blades are set in
from the front; a thin veneer strip on the face edge of each side
of the case hides the dovetails that join the drawer blades to the
sides. The second technique that distinguishes this and at least one
other Lamond chest of drawers from the sideboards is the use of

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

15a. Back view of the chest of drawers in figure 75, showing LanuvuVs use of three
vertical hoards, joined using tongue and groove.

vertical tongue-and-groove joined boards for the back of the piece.
A second chest of drawers (fig. 15), descended in the Harrell/
Tolar family of Robeson County and dated 3 September 1857, is the
latest documented Lamond piece but has practically the same
design as the early chest described above. It is nearly a foot shorter
than the early chest, however, being only four drawers tall instead
of five. The piece displays Lamond's characteristic scratch-beading
and the same short, turned legs as the early chest. Like the earlier
chest, the back is constructed of three vertical boards, joined with
tongue and groove (fig. 15a). The two signed chests, built in
the same style but twenty-three years apart, once again illustrate

MAY 1994

the cabinetmaker's persistence in the use of earher forms over
time.

A relatively early Lamond desk-and-bookcase (fig. 16), which
descended in the Blount/MacLeod family of Robeson County, is
particularly interesting. Signed and dated 24 March 1837, it is in
several respects the finest example of Lamond's craft. The desk
rests on tall, rather delicate legs, whose decorative ringed turnings
are a significant departure from the square tapered legs found on
most Lamond case pieces. The slanted writing surface is con-
structed of two tongue-and-groove joined boards with straight
battens and is hinged at the back. The top lifts from the front to
reveal a storage compartment with pigeonholes (fig. 16a). Beneath
the desk compartment are two scratch-beaded drawers, both
inscribed underneath.

The back of the bookcase has been replaced, but the original
back undoubtedly consisted of horizontal tongue-and-groove
boards as found on a later Lamond desk-and-bookcase. The lattice
tracery and glass of the two bookcase doors appear to be original,
and the two sides of the door frames that meet in the middle are
decorated with scratch-beading along their vertical edges. Lamond
applied a scratch-beaded batten to the front edge of each bookcase
shelf; the bed molding of the bookcase is reeded.

The prototype for this desk-and-bookcase is problematic; it is
unlike any other documented piece of American furniture, and no
similar Scottish form can be identified. It is somewhat evocative of
the so-called plantation desk of the coastal Carolinas, whose top
cabinet contained pigeonholes for filing documents rather than
shelves for books. The Lamond piece is considerably taller than
these plantation-type desks, and the case of the desk itself seems
somewhat oversized for the frame and legs on which it rests. Per-
haps the piece is a vernacular derivation of the type of northern-
influenced secretaries with three drawers and tapered legs dis-
cussed by Bivins in his treatment of early furniture of the lower
Cape Fear.''

The inscriptions on the two drawers of the desk are the most
autobiographical of any of Lamond's signatures, evocative of the

32 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

i6. Desk-and-bookcase, signed by Henry Lamond and dated March 24th 1837. Wal-
nut with yellow pine secondary. HOA 76", WOA 35'/:", DOA 24W. Private
collection. MRF S-20173.

ebullient sort of inscriptions seen on pieces by another native
Edinburgh cabinetmaker and contemporary of Lamond, John
Shearer of Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia).'- The bot-
tom of the left drawer reads: "Henry Lamond/made for Elias
Townsend March 24th 1837/H.L. was bornd in the city/of Edin-
burgh, North Britten/October 31st, A.D. 1785/Is a mason and
wishes to/do one last job, all my friends/to see that they may
long/remember me." On the right drawer appear these words:
"Henry Lamond/Cabinet Maker/from Edinburgh, N.B./ March 24
(?) 1837." Beneath this inscription Lamond again sketched the
Masonic symbols of the ladder, beehive, and coffin.

Henry Lamond was fifty-one years old when he penciled these
inscriptions on the desk he made for his friend Elias Townsend. It
is ironic that Lamond labeled this piece "one last job," for he con-
tinued to make and sign furniture for at least another twenty years.
In fact, most of the other Lamond furniture under study postdates
the 1837 desk and bookcase the Scotsman may have intended as a
last great effort before the decline in ability he regarded as
inevitable with the onset of old age. Lamond surely surprised his

Wi:L'"t

16a. Detail of the interior of the desk-aiid-bookcase in figure 16.

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

17. Side table, signed by Henry Lamond and dated 1857. Walnut with yel-
low pine secondary. HOA 28'A", WO A 22'/:", DOA 18". Private collection.
MRF S-20170.

friends and himself with his continued productivity and longevity
over the decades of the 1840s and 1850s. Indeed, another desk and
bookcase signed by Lamond and dated 5 December 1851 has
descended in the McNair and McKinnon families of Robeson
County. This piece, except for some variation in the proportions,
heavier molding around the top, different turning of the legs, and
rebuilding of the doors (which may not have had the lattice tracery
of the earlier bookcase), is a less decorative rendering of the
Townsend desk made nearly fifteen years before.

Lamond was in his seventies when he built one of his last known
pieces, a signed side table (fig. 17) with a faint date inscription
from May 1857, which has descended in the Harrell/Tolar family of

MAY 1994

Robeson County. Although the top of the table appears to have
been replaced and the penciled inscriptions on the drawer bottom
have been traced over, most of the piece is undoubtedly the work
of Lamond. Made in the second half of the century and near the
end of Lamond's career, this small table is, nevertheless, still of
basic neoclassical design. Though otherwise unremarkable in
design and construction, the table's tapered legs and scratch-
beaded drawer (with dummy keyhole) bear late testimony to Lam-
ond's lifelong persistence in neoclassical forms.

Three dining tables, all associated with Lamond sideboards, are
probably the most remarkable of Lamond's furniture production.
They are further examples of the Scotsman's retardataire applica-
tion of neoclassical form. The first of these tables (fig. 18) has
descended in the Humphrey/Williams/Smith family of Robeson
County. Though unsigned, this drop-leaf walnut dining table with
simple lines, tapered legs, and sturdy rule joints of the top and
leaves is undoubtedly contemporary with the 1839 sideboard built
for Richard B. Humphrey (fig. 9), with which it is historically en
suite and with which it shares similar two-board top construction.
The dovetailing of the table frame is unmistakably Henry Lam-
ond's work.

Most compelling is the unexpected construction of this rare six-
leg table. The few documented examples of other dining tables
with six legs have two fixed center legs, each attached to one end of
the table, that supplement the swing legs located at the corners of
the frame and provide greater stability when the leaves are open.
The Lamond table represents a unique departure from this cus-
tomary six-leg arrangement in that the two fixed legs are not
attached at the ends of the table. Instead, each of the central sup-
port legs is attached to one of two heavy cross braces, located
about one quarter of the length of the frame from each end of the
table top (fig. 18a). These two braces, built like vertical partitions,
occupy the entire height of the frame and are joined to the sides of
the frame by two strong mortise-and-tenon joints on each brace
end (fig. 18b). The eight brace tenons pass through the sides of the
frame, and their exposed ends are notched to receive the thin
wooden wedges driven into them to expand the tenons and tighten

36 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

i8. Dining table, attributed to Henry Lanwtid, probably 1839, with one leaf
extended. Walnut with yellow pine secondary. HOA 29 Vi ", WOA 45 % ", LOA 53 4 ".
Private collection. MRF S-17044.

the joints — the same technique visible on the exposed tenons on
the backs of Lamond's sideboards. The legs are attached to the
center of these cross braces by means of vertical dado cuts, and
each joint is fastened with a large machine-cut screw near the top
of the leg stile. All four corner legs swing out to support the leaves.
Two other such six-legged Lamond tables are both associated
with the 1833-34 sideboard made for William C. McNeill. The first
is in excellent repair, but the top of the second has been compro-
mised by the cutting off of its rule joints and the shortening of its
leaves. The former differs from the Humphrey table in that its top
and each of its leaves are made of as many as six boards joined
together, while the top of the Humphrey table consists of two
boards and each leaf of only one wide board. Except for this detail

MAY 1994

and some variation in dimensions, all three tables are identical in
their method of construction.

Aside from an unusual treatment of the gate frames, in which
Lamond sandwiched a thin board between each gate frame and
the inner frame and notched it to provide sufficient clearance for
the movable parts of the square-cut gate hinges, the framing of
these tables is fairly conventional. The unique treatment of the
center legs, however, distinguishes the tables from other southern
styles. No other American example of such a six-leg table with the
center legs attached to their own frame braces is known to MESDA
or to this researcher. Neither is it readily evident that the form is at
all British, since English six-leg tables are generally of the more
usual variety, with center legs attached at the table ends. Only if we
return to Scotland, to the city of Lamond's birth, do we solve the
mystery of a specific prototype for the Robeson County design.

Thousands of visitors to Edinburgh pass annually through the
Georgian House at Number 7, Charlotte Square, the showcase
house museum of the National Trust of Scotland. Formerly the late
eighteenth-century town house of John Lamont, of Lamont in
Argyllshire (the surname is pure coincidence), the Georgian
House today has been furnished to provide a glimpse of the fash-
ionable life in Edinburgh's New Town two centuries ago. The main
dining table in the house is for most of the year covered with linen
and bedecked with period tableware. In the offseason, stripped of
its covering and demilune banquet ends, it becomes a straightfor-
ward mahogany version of Lamond's six-leg Carolina table, with
the very same two center legs attached to frame braces and with its
top attached by means of interior-gouged screw pockets. Aside
from insignificant variations in dimensions and construction
details, the Edinburgh and Robeson County tables are a near-per-
fect match, built in the neoclassical style, though perhaps a half a
century and an ocean apart.

According to Shelagh Kennedy, curator of the Georgian House,
the table has an Edinburgh provenance and is presumed to be the
work of an Edinburgh cabinet shop. Furthermore, Kennedy con-
siders the use of such fixed center legs to be a normal convention
of eighteenth-century Edinburgh cabinetmakers. David Jones con-

38 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

i8a. Bottom view of tlie dining table in figure iS, showing construction of the
frame and legs.

i8b. Detail of the dining table in figure 18, with a square-cut gate hinge
and brace tenons holding one of the two center legs.

curs that the form is not uncommon in and around Edinburgh,
though he does not know of any signed or clearly attributed exam-
ple."

As there has never been, to date, a comprehensive, published
study of Edinburgh or Scottish furniture, more research is
required to determine whether this particular six-leg arrangement
was indeed Edinburgh-specific or if the design found a wider
application in Scotland and elsewhere. Nevertheless, the serendipi-
tous discovery of an example in a house in the Scottish capital sug-
gests that Lamond, during his apprenticeship and youth in that
city, would surely have been familiar with the form. That he con-
structed at least three tables in the same fashion after many inter-
vening years in North Carolina is powerful evidence of a direct
transmission of the design, through his work, from eighteenth-
century Scotland to Robeson County, North Carolina.

We have already demonstrated the importance of Lamond's
work to the discussion of the relatively scarce furniture of Fayet-
teville and the upper Cape Fear. The Scotsman incorporated some
of the neat and plain traditions of his own eighteenth-century
British training — including simple lines, straightforward framing,
fine dovetailing, and scratch-beading — into the late neoclassical
forms he encountered in his adopted Cumberland County before
1820. Lamond's preservation of these forms later in Robeson
County contributes to our present knowledge of certain elements
of Cape Fear regional style perhaps otherwise forever lost.

Much about Henry Lamond remains a mystery. The oldest
known examples of his furniture were constructed as Lamond
approached the age of fifty, leaving the first, probably more prolific
half of his career undocumented. However, the recognition of
Lamond's six-leg dining table as a specific style from Georgian
Edinburgh suggests one possible scenario for his early life. That
this particular table construction is the only distinctly Scottish
form that Lamond later incorporated into his otherwise fairly typ-
ical Cape Fear repertoire may be evidence that young Lamond
indeed apprenticed or worked for a time in one of the larger Edin-
burgh cabinet shops such as Trotter's. In such an enterprise he may
have been assigned to a group of cabinetmakers engaged exclu-

40 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

sively in the mass production of standard dining tables that were
in increasing demand for the homes of the New Town. While
apprenticeship would have imparted to him all the solid construc-
tion techniques required to produce any of the various contempo-
rary forms he later encountered in America, early extended spe-
cialization in the production of dining tables could account for
Lamond's seeming unfamiliarity with other typical Edinburgh
forms, such as the "double-top" sideboard produced by Scottish
cabinetmakers in South Carolina, for example.'^ In the case of
Lamond's six-leg table design, the discovery of its direct transmis-
sion from Scotland to North America may make possible the cor-
rect identification and attribution of other similar Scottish-Ameri-
can furniture in the future.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to thank the North Caroliniana Society of the
Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
for its generous financial support of this project in the form of an
Archie K. Davis Fellowship, which made possible a research trip to
Scotland. I am also especially grateful to Dr. David Jones of the
Department of Art History at St. Andrews University, Fife, who
hosted me in Scotland and provided expert guidance and access to
invaluable resources. The completion of the project has been facil-
itated by a sabbatical grant from the 1993 legislative appropriation
to the NC Department of Cultural Resources, sponsored by the
Honorable Frances M. Cummings of Robeson County.

Many other people have assisted me in this ten-year quest for
Henry Lamond. Thanks first of all to Forsyth Alexander, former
editor of publications at MESDA, who encouraged me to write the
article and provided much inspiration and expertise. The project
could not have been done without my mentor Charles Thomas
Smith of Humphrey- Williams-Smith Plantation, where I live and
work, who supported me at every step along the way. I wish to
thank my dear friend Barbara Wood of Lumberton for continually
proofreading my text. Others who assisted me with this work

MAY 1994 41

include Jon Prown and Ron Hurst of Colonial Williamsburg; Brad
Rauschenberg, director of research at MESDA; Cornelia Wright,
editor of publications at MESDA; Wes Stewart, MESDA photogra-
pher; Bill Murphy of the Historic Preservation Foundation of
North Carolina; B. H. Blake, Secretary of St. Albans Masonic
Lodge No. 114 in Lumberton, N.C.; Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Wedder-
burn of Mountquhanie House, Cupar, Fife; Mrs. Shelagh Kennedy
of the Georgian House Museum, Edinburgh; Ian Gow of the
National Monuments Record Office of Scotland; T. C. Smout of
the Department of Scottish History, University of St. Andrews,
Fife; John Knight of Historic Scotland; John D. Powers, surveyor,
of Lumberton, N.C.; Rev. Joel Alvis of Saint Pauls Presbyterian
Church; and Mrs. Mary Hayslip of First Presbyterian Church,
Fayetteville. I especially appreciate the cooperation and patience of
the several individual owners of furniture by Henry Lamond and
other artisans, who opened their homes and shared their family
histories with me. Thanks also to the Grand Lodge of North Car-
olina in Raleigh and to the Grand Lodge of Scotland in Edinburgh
for access to their archives and to the ladies of the Wednesday
Study Club of Saint Pauls, N.C., for their enthusiastic encourage-
ment.

Finally, a special word of acknowledgment to Mr. and Mrs.
James W. Powers of Saint Pauls, N.C., who live by the Presbyterian
Church on the old Stage Road, not far from where Henry Lamond
resided for half a century. Their knowledge of the whereabouts
and histories of a number of Lamond pieces was crucial to this
research. Faison's love of antiquity and Bud's skill as a cabinet-
maker have kept alive the tradition of Henry Lamond in his own
community.

Robert F. Doares, Jr., formerly instructor of modern languages for
Davidson College and Flora Macdonald Academy, is a private cura-
tor and scholar-in-residence at the 1772 Humphrey-Williams-Smith
Plantation in Robeson County, North Carolina.

42 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

NOTES

1. lohn Bivins, The Furniture of Coastal North Carolina ijoo-iSio (Winston-Salem, N. C:
Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 1988), 449. Hereafter cited as Bivins, FCNC.

2. Old St. Cuthbert's Church, Edinburgh, built in 1775, was demolished in 1890 except for
the 1789 spire, which now decorates the present church.

3. Information about Henry Lamond's parents and siblings from Old Parochial Registers
of Births, 1780-1786, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, 141, 227, 306; also from comprehen-
sive marriage index for Edinburgh parishes, courtesy of the Genealogical Society of Utah,
Salt Lake City.

4. Frederick W. Watkeys, Old Edinburgh, 1 vols. (Boston: L. C. Page & Company, 1905),
1: 299-300.

5. David Jones, "Scottish Furniture 1791-1900" in The Macinillan Dictionary 0} Art (Lon-
don, 1994). Hereafter cited as Jones, "Furniture."

6. Francis Bamford, A Dictionary of Edinburgh Wrights ami Furniture Makers 1660-1840
(Leeds, England: Furniture History Society, 1983), 28.

7. Ibid., 16-28.

8. Jones, 5, and Bamford, 32.

9. "Register of Edinburgh Apprentices 1757-1800" (manuscript copy in Edinburgh City
Archives); also Records of the United Incorporation of Mary's Chapel 1739-1842, MSS
Deposit 302, National Library of Scotland.

10. Bamford, 35.

11. Jones, "Furniture," 4.

12. Robeson County, North Carolina, Record of Deeds, Book S, 226; Book 5V, 484; Book
T, 275; also Federal Censuses for Robeson County, North Carolina, 1820-1870.

13. Maud Thomas, Away Down Home: A History of Robeson County, North Carolina
(Lumberton, N. C: Historic Robeson, Inc., 1982), 28-30; hereafter cited as Thomas, Robe-
son County.

14. Ibid., 51-57.

15. Robeson County Estate Records, North Carolina Department of Archives and His-
tory.

16. Federal Census for Robeson County, North Carolina, 1850, Agricultural Schedule.
According to the information Lamond gave the census taker, his farm consisted of twenty
acres of improved and thirty acres of unimproved or wooded land, valued together at two
hundred and fifty dollars. Livestock valued at one hundred and eight dollars included two
horses, two milk cows, three other head of cattle, and sixteen swine. That year he had
slaughtered animals valued at thirty-five dollars and had produced twenty pounds of but-
ter. Lamond reported an annual harvest of eighty bushels of Indian corn, fifteen bushels of
oats, fifty pounds of rice, twenty bushels of peas and beans, ten bushels of Irish potatoes,
and fifty bushels of sweet potatoes.

17. Church rosters checked include First Presbyterian Churches of Saint Pauls, Lumber-
ton, and Fayetteville.

MAY 1994 43

i8. The comprehensive membership index of Scottish Masonic Lodges at the Grand
Lodge in Edinburgh, ostensibly a complete record, does not record the admission of Henry
Lamond to the fraternity in any of the lodges in Edinburgh or environs for the appropriate
period.

19. Minutes of St. Alban's Lodge No. 144, 1875-1896, courtesy of B. H. Blake; hereafter cited
as St. Alban's Minutes.

20. Robeson County Record of Wills. The original will of Henry Lamond is on file at
North Carolina Department of Archives and History.

21. R. C. Lawrence, History of St. Alban's Lodge No. 114, Ancient, Free and Accepted
Mflsons (Lumberton, N.C., 1939), 3.

22. Federal Censuses for Robeson County, North Carolina, 1850-1870, Agricultural
Schedules.

23. Federal Census, 1850, Population Schedule.

24. Robeson County Estate Records, North Carolina Department of Archives and His-
tory.

25. Thomas, Robeson County, 154-161.

26. Lamond Estate Papers, Robeson County Record of Probate, North Carolina Depart-
ment of Archives and History; also St. Alban's Minutes.

27. St. Alban's Minutes.

28. Robeson County Account Records, CR083.501.1, 140-42, North Carolina Department
of Archives and History.

29. Jonathan Prown, "A Cultural Analysis of Furniture-making in Petersburg, Virginia,
1760-1820," Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts 18, 1 (May 1992): 24, 34, 73, 77-78.

30. Bivins, FCNC, 438-39.

31. Ibid., 413-16; also John Bivins, Wilmington Furniture (Wilmington, North Carolina:
St. John's Museum of Art and Historic Wilmington Foundation, 1989), 48.

32. John J. Snyder, Jr., "John Shearer, Joiner of Martinsburgh," Journal of Early Southern
Decorative Arts 'y, 1 (May 1979): 1-25.

33. David Jones, telephone conversation with the author, 18 March 1994.

34. "Furniture," 3. The Scottish/British term for a double-top sideboard is stage- top.

44 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

The Wheeler House in Murfreesboro,
North CaroHna, 1809-1832

Insights fro in Documentary Research

AU DREY H. MICHIE

On the corner of Broad and Fourth streets, in the middle of the
historic district of the small northeastern North Carolina town of
Murfreesboro, stands the two-story brick house that once
belonged to merchant John Wheeler (fig. i). It is a proud-looking
house with a white double portico and a large, arched doorway
with a fanlight and vertical sidelights. Four windows are aligned
symmetrically at the front, as are four windows on the two chim-
ney ends. A low porch crosses the back, providing access to a small
brick two-story dependency at the southwest corner. As late as
World War I a kitchen house, now gone, stood at the southeast
corner.' The house faces south onto Broad Street, once Main
Street. Behind it is a part of the acreage acquired by John Wheeler,
which once reached to the Meherrin River. John Wheeler bought
the house in 1814, and lived there until his death in 1832. His son
occupied it until 1867, and it was sold out of the family in 1872.
From 1872 until 1970 it belonged to another Murfreesboro family,
the Traders. In 1970 the house was acquired by Mrs. Virginia Camp
Smith and donated by her to the Murfreesboro Historical Associa-
tion, which restored and furnished it as an interpretive site with
emphasis on Wheeler family history.' It opened to the public in
1980.

The house's architecture and history are representative of
Murfreesboro's history and of John Wheeler's rise as a prosperous

1. The Wheeler house, built ca. 1809, after restoration. Courtesy of the Murfreesboro
Historical Associatioti, Inc.

merchant. Two of John Wheeler's descendants became famous: his
son John Hill Wheeler, the first native-born North Carolinian to
write a history of the state, and his grandson John Wheeler Moore,
an historian and poet. Of special interest to architectural histori-
ans and students of material culture is the fact that the house was
first built as a store and was converted into a dwelling by the
Wheelers. During its twentieth-century restoration, some early
nineteenth-century block-printed wallpaper was discovered that
could date from this conversion. In the course of the search for
historical documentation of the house, a ledger containing estate
accounts for John Wheeler and his third wife, Sarah, from 1832 and
1833, was found at the State Archives in Raleigh, North Carolina.^
These accounts consisted of four very complete household inven-
tories. Considering that the Hertford County Court records in the
Winton Courthouse were destroyed twice by fire, in 1830 and 1862,
this is an important find.

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

The town of Murfreesboro was founded on ninety-seven acres
deeded to the state by Hardy Murfree in 1787.' Murfree was a
prominent plantation owner, Revolutionary War hero, and politi-
cian. The location was chosen because of its potential for trade; the
original petitioners for the town site pointed out that its position
on the south side of the Meherrin River made it ideal for a port"
(fig. 2). The fact that this port would be at the highest river point
accessible to sea-going vessels meant that it would capture most of
the land trade in the surrounding countryside.

By the 1790s, Murfreesboro's promoters were proven right. Ves-
sels arrived by way of the Albemarle Sound and Chowan River to
disgorge or pick up cargos. Coastal shipping grew, and a flourish-

2. Detail of Map ot the United States, Exhibiting Post-Roads, the Situations, Con-
nections, and Distances of the Post Offices, Stage Roads, Counties, Ports of Entry,
Delivery for Foreign Vessels, and the Principal Rivers. Abraham Bradley, Jr.;
engraved by William Hamilton. Washington, D.C., 1796. The arrow indicates Mur-
freesboro.

MAY 1994

ing trade developed with the West Indies. Merchants were
attracted to Murfreesboro from New England and several settled
there, such as the Rea brothers of Boston. Stores and warehouses
were built. Rum and whiskey distilleries sprang up, and several
ships were built there. William Rea, who operated a store with his
brother Joseph, built his 96-ton schooner Melinda at the landing."
Export commodities, such as tar, turpentine, bacon, lard, corn,
wheat, cotton, and tobacco, arrived from northeastern North Car-
olina and southeastern Virginia.' Imports included textiles, tools,
farm implements, paints, drugs, tablewares, stationery, and
books.** In 1798 Hardy Murfree's petition to lay off and add twenty-
four new lots to the town was enacted." All early research for
Murfreesboro is hampered by the lack of a town plat. What is left
is only the documents that miraculously survived in private hands,
or what can be pieced together by reading early histories, biogra-
phies, diaries and later deeds recording earlier agreements."' Figure
3 is a reconstruction of the early town plan, with selected sites
noted, based on research by Thomas C. Parramore.

Restrictions of coastal trade caused by overseas embargos fol-
lowed this halcyon period, with a corresponding effect on Mur-
freesboro. A memoir published in i860 gave a Connecticut trades-
man's impression of just how quiet things had gotten in the town:
"At the beginning of the century there was a considerable number
of trading houses but no mechanics exercising their trade except a
blacksmith and a tailor. There was not a church, a clergyman, or a
lawyer in the place; there was however a barber and two physi-
cians. A Masonic hall supplied the place of all public buildings
except the office of the Surveyor of the Port, being a port of deliv-
ery. The offices of Surveyor, Inspector, Postmaster, etc. were held
by Col. Murfree, the founder of the town. The town contains the
Masonic hall, a tavern, a boarding house, and a race course."" The
writer was mistaken about the absence of a local church. Parker's
Meeting House, a Baptist church (later renamed Meherrin
Church), was a mile outside of town. '-

In 1809 President Madison lifted the embargo on American
trade with Europe and the West Indies. In 1810 new post roads
were established, and Murfreesboro was included in the North

48 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

Main Street

Vance Street
High Street

3. Plan ofMurfreesboro, Nortfi Carolina, ca. 1823, indicating properties mentioned in
the text. A. John Wheeler house. B. John and Ephraim Wheeler store. C. Wheeler
tanyard site (1832). D. John Wheeler's lot 4. E. Hertford Academy. F. Lots owned by
George Gordon. G. Samuel Everett sites. H. Clifton house and store site. I. Dr.
Thomas O'Dwyer's house. J. William Rea store. K. Murfreesboro Historic Founda-
tion. Plan by Kerry Home, based on research by Thomas C. Parramore.

Carolina circuit." Commercial prospects brightened once more.

Hardy Murfree moved to Tennessee before 1809, but his son
William Hardy Murfree, an attorney, chose to stay on in North
Carolina. He began to practice law in 1803 and around 1809
formed a partnership with merchant George Gordon. Gordon
moved to Murfreesboro from Pitch Landing before November
1809, when he and William Murfree (as well as John Wheeler) were
listed among the twenty-four trustees in the "Act to Establish an
Academy in Hertford County." In a business letter of January 1810,
Gordon asked John Gray Blount to send a bill payable to "Murfree
& Gordon," indicating that a partnership existed by that time.'^

The years 1809 to 1811 were filled with building activity in
Murfreesboro. In 1810 a Dr. William L. Smith of Connecticut
arrived at Pitch Landing and visited Murfreesboro with a view to
settling there. On 9 March he wrote his parents, "The borough is a

MAY 1994 49

very flourishing place. The merchants do a great business here and
they are building rapidly. Gordon and Murfree are building several
houses. They are also building by subscription a very large and ele-
gant brick academy."'- In 1811 he reported that the town then had
about five hundred inhabitants, two public houses, and ten stores
with two to four clerks in most of them. Contract specifications
for the Academy stated that it be built "in the form of an L to front
40 feet two ways by 20." It was completed by 12 March 1811, and is
still standing today.'"

With so much building going on during this period, there must
have been artisans or "mechanics," as they were called, who were
active in the town. Unfortunately, the names of brick masons,
plasterers, carpenters, painters, and glaziers who may have been
involved are elusive. The destruction of court records in the area is
largely responsible for this. Such papers as deeds, wills, and estate
inventories, which might have indicated trades, are unavailable.
However, two artisans' names can be found in some extant issues
of the 1812-1813 newspaper, the Homefs Nest. Robert Warren
advertised from nearby Princeton on 25 February 1813 as a "brick-
layer, plasterer, painter and glazier" seeking work. Samuel Everett
was looking for two carpenter's apprentices in the borough on 12
November 1812." It is possible that either or both of these men
were involved in the construction mentioned by Smith. A Robert
Warren died in 1819 in Northampton County; the contents of his
22 June 1819 estate sale included plastering trowels, brick trowels,
and other such tools, suggesting that this was the same man."
Samuel Everett, carpenter, was listed in both the 1810 and 1820
Hertford County censuses, and in the 1815 Murfreesboro tax list,
where he owned several lots.'"" Information like this, much of
which remains to be discovered, contributes an important per-
spective on the construction of the Wheeler house and the later
changes.

Murfree and Gordon probably built their store in response to
revived optimism for commercial expansion in 1809. At this late
date we may never know their original intentions for the building,
how they used it, or why they sold it to John Wheeler so soon.
They may have found their fortunes affected by the War of 1812,

50 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

which caused setbacks in shipping and a recession for some.-" The
partnership remained active, and they kept their other store.'' The
building, identified in the deed as of brick, was signed over to John
Wheeler by William H. Wheeler on 4 November 1814.''

Murfree became engrossed in politics, representing Hertford
County in the House in 1812, and the Edenton district in Congress
in 1813. He was reelected in 1815. He became Public Register for the
county and later Clerk of Court. In 1824 he followed his father's
example and emigrated to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, another town
named for his family. He died there in 1827. '

George Gordon stayed in Murfreesboro until his death around
1824. In 1813 he was also treasurer of Hertford Academy.'' By 1815
he had acquired lots 200 and 201.-' He was Clerk of the County
Court from 1822 to 1823.'''

John Wheeler had moved to Murfreesboro, North Carolina, by
at least 1796. He was born in Essex County, New Jersey, on 23 June
1771, the oldest son of nine children of Dr. John Wheeler and Eliza-
beth Longworth.-' From New Jersey he and his family, who were
loyalists, moved first to Long Island, New York, and then to St.
John's, New Brunswick, Canada, in 1783. His career as a merchant
seems to have started at about the age of eighteen in New York,
when he worked with his cousin David Longworth, merchant and
printseller. Longworth was first listed in the New York City Direc-
tory for 1789 with his occupation unspecified, from 1793 listed as
"clerk," and from 1796 as "printseller." He became quite well
known and was himself the publisher of the Directory from 1797 to
1842.-' An 1800 entry for "Longworth and Wheeler" is misleading
as an indication of a partnership between the two cousins.
Wheeler was listed in the Hertford County census by 1800. The
only John Wheeler listed in the Directory around that time was
"John Wheeler, labourer," in 1789.

According to Wheeler family information, John Wheeler was
persuaded to come south, to Bertie County, directly south of
Hertford County, by Zedekiah Stone, father of the later govern-
or David Stone.-'* On 1 January 1796 Wheeler married Maria Eliza-
beth Jordan of that county. By 1 November 1796 he was in
Murfreesboro as one of the partners of Walter Hubbell & Co. of

MAY 1994 51

Windsor; his first child, EHzabeth Maria, was born on 4 January

1797-

Biographical material for John Wheeler, especially regarding his
business ventures, is patchy. His personal records such as memo-
randum books, account books, diaries, and letters have been either
lost or destroyed. The only documents we have are federal cen-
suses; the Hertford County tax lists; the 1814 deed to the house; the
estate accounts recorded after John's and Sarah's deaths, including
household inventories and real estate sold; genealogical informa-
tion; and occasional mentions in local newspapers. Some of his
business activities, such as the years in which he was actively
involved in a store, must be surmised by inference as much as by
known facts.

Maria Elizabeth bore eight children before she died in 1810, only
three of whom survived infancy. As well as Elizabeth Maria, two
sons reached adulthood. John Hill Wheeler (1806-1882) was
elected to the state legislature twice, in 1827 and 1852, became
Superintendent of the state branch of the U.S. Mint in Charlotte in
1836, was State Treasurer in 1842, and was minister to Nicaragua
from 1854 to 1857. He published a history of North Carolina, His-
torical Sketches, in 1851. Samuel Jordan Wheeler (1810-1879) en-
tered the medical profession and became one of the owners of the
house. He too had literary talents, publishing a History of the
Meherrin Church in 1844, producing the Murfreesboro newspaper
the Citizen (1858), and contributing articles to several newspa-
pers.'"

In the 1800 census John Wheeler's household consisted of him-
self, his wife, their daughter Elizabeth Maria, another free white
male between the ages of twenty-six and forty-five (possibly John's
brother Jabez, who had settled in Winton by 1806), and four slaves.
Two other children had died in infancy. By the 1810 census, the
family had expanded to include Wheeler, Maria Elizabeth, Eliza-
beth Maria, John Hill and Samuel Jordan, and a newborn baby
girl." Two other children had died as babies. By late 1810 the
youngest daughter also died, followed by Maria Elizabeth, who
died on 18 October of that year.

John Wheeler married his second wife, Sally Ford Wood, in

52 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

April 1811. They had a son, born in 1812, who Uved only seven
months, and a daughter, JuHa Munro, born in April 1814. Then
Sally Ford died on 9 October of the same year. This was only one
of a series of tragedies to strike the Wheeler family in the course of
John's marriage to Sally Ford: John's oldest daughter, Elizabeth
Maria, who had married Jonas Clifton at the age of fifteen in 1811,
died in 1813 in childbirth; Jonas died the next year, leaving their
baby Eliza Ann to be raised by John and Sally Ford. John's father
also died in 1814, a few weeks before Sally's death. Two years passed
before John remarried. A female member of his family, possibly
his mother or his widowed sister Elizabeth Mullen, who moved to
Murfreesboro around 1812, may have stepped in to help raise his
children and granddaughter.

John Wheeler probably began negotiating to purchase Murfree
and Gordon's store during his marriage to Sally Ford. He may have
been anticipating an increase in either his family size or his busi-
ness. He had apparently given up one store location in 1812, since
the Hornet's Nest announced that September that editor and store-
keeper Minor Huntington, had books and stationery for sale "at
the store lately occupied by John Wheeler, Esq." By 5 April 1813
another merchant, J. Dawley, had "taken the store of Mr. John
Wheeler.'"' This may have been the same store mentioned in con-
nection with Huntington, since store premises and property were
occasionally identified by their most prominent occupant rather
than the most recent one. Huntington had left Murfreesboro by
1814. Wheeler ran his own advertisements in 1812, offering pota-
toes, molasses, and salt brought from New York on the sloop Mars,
and, in the same paper, the notice "Irish potatoes for sale by John
Wheeler, Esq."'-

John Wheeler's former house is mentioned in the 1814 deed.
From information in the 1798 town expansion (adding twelve
lots), the lot number (188) given in the deed, the 1814 Hertford
County tax list enumerating the lots and acreage Wheeler owned
that year, and two newspaper notices of sheriffs sales in Murfrees-
boro, it appears that it was on lot 4.'^ According to the 1815 tax list
Wheeler owned lot 188 (valued at £400), lot 4 (£400), lot 3 (half-
ownership with merchant Patrick Brown; £300), lot 47 (half-own-

M AY 1994 53

ership with William B. Cheatham; £50), and seventeen acres (£68).

A few weeks after Sally Ford died, John Wheeler signed the deed
to the store owned by William Murfree that was to be his future
home. The deed called it a "brick store" and described the lots as
"one piece of land situated immediately back of the house of the
said John Wheeler, separated from his lots by a street,-One hun-
dred and twenty six feet in front and forty four yards back towards
the river-Another lot in the town of Murfreesboro, on which is the
Brick Store, known and distinguished in the plan of the said town
by the number One hundred and eighty-eight, bounded as follows
beginning on the North Edge of the Main Street twenty feet above
Benjamin Roberts' ware House, thence along the edge of said
Street South 88d. West Eighty four feet, thence North 2d. West
Eighty eight yards, thence North Eighty eight degrees East eighty
four feet, thence to the beginning. . . ." The sale amount of
$2,569.50 was declared in the deed "in hand paid by the said John
Wheeler the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged." This was a
large sum, even if, as is probable, it was given in the form of a
promissory note." Wheeler may have been relatively confident of
his financial future.

As his business developed, Wheeler seems to have become
increasingly involved in gainful financial transactions. He is docu-
mented as executor of several estates, both of family and business
associates, from which he profited. For instance, he was executor
of his son-in-law Jonas Clifton's estate after his death on 5 April
1814, and Clifton's two lots ended up in his hands. He also made
money by charging interest, both on the running accounts at the
store and on lending amounts outright. It was common for mer-
chants to play a banker's role in their own locality.

Also significant is the role his family played in John Wheeler's
growing prosperity. Several of his brothers and sisters followed
him to North Carolina, and his parents moved to Northampton
County in 1807.-" His brother Jabez, who married Mary Bell in
1806, lived in Hertford County by 1810, and made his home in
Winton, where he left a house and tannery when he died in 1812.
John Wheeler attended to his brother's estate, selling his personal
property and renting the tannery.'' Two widowed sisters and his

54 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

sister-in-law Mary eventually moved to Murfreesboro with their
children, and one sister, Martha, remarried there. John's youngest
brother, Ephraim, came to Murfreesboro by 1809 and was a trustee
of the Hertford Academy in that year/" At some point the two
brothers became business partners, and after 1815 they owned a
store together.'" Ephraim owned town lot 194 (valued at £300) and
half of lot 23 with William Trader, another merchant. The "Trader
& Wheeler" partnership appearing in the Hornefs Nest may have
been EphrainVs with Trader."' In October 1820 Ephraim's marriage
to Mary Kimberly Waring of Brooklyn, New York, was very likely
the result of business connections. Her father Henry Waring, a
merchant listed in the New York City Directory from 1796 to 1817,"
had business dealings with John Wheeler. An extant manifest, now
the property of the Murfreesboro Historical Foundation, lists a
parcel of goods, shipped from New York to Murfreesboro on the
schooner Mary, directed to John Wheeler from Henry Waring &
Co.^^

Almost two years elapsed between Sally Ford's death and John
Wheeler's marriage to his third wife, Sarah Clifton, on 9 Septem-
ber 1816. Sarah brought a substantial dowry of slaves to the mar-
riage, as well as some furniture.^- The conversion of the building
from store to private dwelling could have preceded her, or it could
have been caused by her arrival in the house.

While documentation concerning the structural changes to the
building is lacking, the architectural evidence for the changes is
clear (fig. 4). The house originally had a large first-floor store
room reached through an entrance at the front, with an adjacent
smaller room that had its own external entrance from the back. A
staircase (fig. 5) led up from the store room to the second floor,
which had a passage and two more rooms. All rooms except the
store room had fireplaces, and the store room had only one win-
dow.

The conversion involved closing the exterior store room en-
trance and placing a graceful, fanlighted doorway (fig. 6) at the
center of the front facade. A batten board partition divided the
store room into a smaller room and a central hall. The original
front door was moved to the back, where another centered door-

MAY 1994 55

" g=5 "

4. Floor plan of the Wheeler house, pre-restoration, 19/5. Above: second story. Below:
first story. Plan by Kerry Home, based on architectural drawings by Edwards, Dove,
Knight & Associates.

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

5- Panelled staircase, before restoration. Photograph courtesy of the Murfrees-
horo Historical Association, Inc.

way was created. The original back door from the east room was
left in place. It is uncertain whether the small back porch was
extended at the same time, but a portico was probably added at the
front to set off the new doorway. On the second floor, at some
undetermined time the center window became an external door to
the portico.

The present portico replaces the original one. Modern archaeo-
logical and architectural investigations yielded insufficient evi-

MAY 1994

dence for an accurate reconstruction. The second, present portico
appears to post-date 1840, and thus would have been put up after
John Wheeler's death in 1832/^

A letter from Emily Bland Southall ("Blannie") supports the
post-1840 date. Blannie was the daughter of Sarah Clifton and
James Southall, John W. Southall's brother, who married and
moved to Columbus, Mississippi, in 1837. After her mother's death
in 1861, Blannie visited her grandparents' house in Murfreesboro
for the first time, and described the house in a letter to her sister
Julia: "I can't describe that quaint old brick house better than she
[their mother] has often done. It stands just as she left it, with the
exception of a new gallery in front. The furniture is the same, even
to the carpets. In the stories she has often related connected with
the house, I recognize rooms, closets, and pieces of furniture. It is
such a pleasure walking over it and remembering these things."^'

6. Fan-lighted front door from intenoi, bcloiv restoration. Photograph courtesy of
the Murfreesboro Historical Association, Inc.

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

7- Wallpaper from the south room, ca. 1S15-1825. Photograph courtesy of the
Murfreesboro Historical Association, Inc.

Besides the hall partition, a few other architectural changes were
made on the interior. Wallpaper was added to the west first-tloor
room, the original store room, above a relatively plain wainscot-
ting. It has been identified as a French block-printed paper with
neoclassical motifs (fig. 7), dating around 1815 to 1825.^' Extant
fragments still on some of the pieces of batten board from the west
room interior partition, where it was found, have no intervening
coats of paint; they are glued to the bare wood. The wallpaper,
therefore, must have been part of the installation of the partition.

MAY 1994

8. The Wheeler house from the northeast, showing the relationship of the house to the
dependency. The outbuilding at the left is a later addition. Photograph courtesy of
the Murfreesboro Historical Association, Inc.

Up-to-date French wallpapers were being imported to New York
quite early/' and it is known that there was shipping between New
York and Murfreesboro. John Wheeler, with his merchant con-
tacts, could easily have obtained wallpaper for his house from New
York.

The first-floor east room, which already had a fireplace and fin-
ished woodwork, was left unaltered, as were the second floor
rooms with their woodwork and fireplaces. It is not known
whether John Wheeler placed a stove in the unheated first-floor
west room, or whether this was a later addition.^**

Most of the changes from store building to residence can still be
seen in the external brickwork. The three windows and doorway of
the first-floor east room are original. Where the store room door
was closed and moved there are definite signs of disturbances in

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

the brick, and the same is true for the three windows added to that
room. On the interior, the first doorway location overlaps the
placement of the new hall partition, clearly indicating that the hall
was partitioned off later. The staircase to the second floor appears
to be in its original position, and the space beneath it, contained in
an east room closet, reveals no signs of changes there. Both sec-
ond-floor fireplaces had been converted for stoves, but this may
have been much later.^""

Whether the brick dependency (figs, i, 8) at the southeast corner
of the house was built before, during, or after John Wheeler's
occupancy of the house has not been documented. One theory is
that it was put up several years after the main house. The paneling
of the first-floor room can be identified as Federal, but since this
style continued to be in fashion for a long time, it is no proof of an
actual date. Other conjectures concern the kitchen house and
whether it was built for the store or added on by Wheeler. It may
be that the other rooms in the store were meant to house a store-
keeper, which would explain the finished panelling and fireplaces
in the rooms not intended for storage. If so, the kitchen building
might have been contemporaneous. There is, however, no docu-
mentation for the early years of the store, so this cannot be proven.
It may also be that the finished rooms were intended as a counting
room and working rooms for clerks. In any case, the kitchen house
had to have existed when John Wheeler lived there, fulfilling the
needs of his family. Its size, location, and the remains of a hearth
and some brick flooring were discovered through archaeological
excavation in 1975.'"

The surveys for the restoration of the building clearly indicated
that the store was not first built as a smaller building and then
expanded. All the walls and the two chimneys had gone up at the
same time, including a brick interior north-south wall creating the
original partition between the store room and the east room. This
brick wall may also have been built to provide four fireproof walls
for the store room.

Sarah and John had sixteen years together, from 1816 to 1832. She
bore nine children, of whom seven were still living at his death in
1832; four reached adulthood. Sarah helped raise Julia Munro, Sally

MAY 1994 61

Wood's child, and Eliza Ann, John's granddaughter. Impressions of
the house during this period, and how it was used, depend mainly
on records of family births and deaths, on census records, and on a
few facts about John Wheeler's activities. The census records show
that from 1816 to 1822, five children, including infants, were gener-
ally present. After 1823, these increased to between six and eight.
All were not constantly present, especially when older children
went off to school or married and moved away.

A good deal is known about the events of 1825, since Dr. Thomas
O'Dwyer, a friend of John Wheeler's, kept a record of what was
going on around him in a daily journal.- ' He described how on 23
February Henry Waring came to Murfreesboro after Ephraim's
death. On 10 March there was a sale at Ephraim's house. O'Dwyer
reported that it took place at "the house belonging to Jno. Wheeler
and the estate of E.W [Ephraim]. The lot and buildings where E.
Wheeler lived sold for $600. to Mr. Waring."" O'Dwyer also at-
tended the later property sale and made some purchases. On the
eleventh he "took a walk to the Sale of the Goods in the store of
John & E. Wheeler." He bought five pairs of Negro shoes (probably
for his slaves) at sixty cents a pair, a pair of blankets for $3.15, and a
few yards of cotton sheeting at twenty-two cents apiece. He went
back to the sale the next day to buy two books, some black and
gray thread, and a Treatise on Female Education for thirty-five
cents. Finally, he called on John Wheeler and gave him a note
payable in six months for the purchases."^'

Other references to John Wheeler in O'Dwyer's diary dealt with
their encounters as trustees of Hertford Academy, with a subpoena
to enlist Wheeler as a witness in a lawsuit (16 March), and with his
help in distributing Bible Society tracts and in remitting money
collected to the parent Bible Society in New York (24 August).
O'Dwyer obtained notes on New York from Wheeler, who charged
him 4% interest. He also mentioned buying a quarter of a lamb
(11-12 May) and a quart of good quality rum (27 September) from
Wheeler.'^

Carpenter Samuel Everett also featured in O'Dwyer's diary." On
12 May 1825 O'Dwyer reported that he had gone to see the benches
Everett had made for a room in the Academy. In other entries

62 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

O'Dwyer mentions his slave Henry, who was a carpenter. Henry
buih him a new stable and was hired out to take down a partition
at the Academy. He was also hired out to Major Cooke for $18.00 a
month. O'Dwyer describes how Henry went off in a cart, taking
his chest of tools, and how he had to return for a plane iron."^
Slaves were frequently hired out for their particular skills, their
masters pocketing their hire. O'Dwyer's references are valuable
because very little slave artisan work has been recorded. They also
act as a reminder that some of the work done at the Wheeler house
may have been done by slaves who lived in the town.''

After Ephraim died in 1825, John took over his position as post-
master.'" He continued to keep a store, and it may have stayed at
the same location as their joint store. Several references help locate
this building. In February 1826, as noted in the Intelligencer,
William C. Copeland is mentioned as having his saddlery "oppo-
site the store of Mr. John Wheeler."^'' Copeland put in another
notice in the 1 April 1827 North Carolina Chronicle explaining that
he was next door to John W. Southall. Southall's store was at the
west end of Williams Street, where it forms an angle to meet the
present Main Street. Wheeler's store is known from an 1826 town
expansion petition to have no house "above" (i.e., to the west of)
it. The previous expansion stopped at the junction of present Main
and William streets."' This locates the Wheeler store near that
junction.

By 1827 Wheeler had other property on Williams Street. He had
acquired lots 202 and 203 at his son-in-law's death in 1814.''' They
became part of Wheeler's real estate sold after his death, listed as
"the Clifton house & lot & store where John Wheeler dect. kept in
front of J. W. Southall.""- This is the only store mentioned in the
estate papers (see Appendix I). He also owned George Gordon's
former lots 200 and 201. The exact details of the acquisition are
missing, but they became his in the course of the widow Elizabeth
Gordon's conveyance of her inherited dower rights to the prop-
erty."'

Wheeler became a town commissioner in 1825."' Both John and
Sarah belonged to the Baptist Church, and in 1826 John was one of
the supervisors for the rebuilding of Parker's Meeting House."

MAY 1994 63

Another of John Wheeler's activities was his membership in the
American Colonization Society. This society was formed in 1816 to
allow free blacks to emigrate to Africa. It had a North Carolina
chapter in 1818, and a Hertford County chapter was established in
1824. John Wheeler was treasurer in 1830 and apparently was an
enthusiastic supporter of its aims. He is credited by descendant
and historian John Wheeler Moore with having freed and sent off
his slaves."" However, according to the 1830 census he held seven-
teen slaves, including three children, and in his 1832 will he
bequeathed eleven slaves and their increase to his wife. Perhaps he
was able to release only a few. Official Colonization Society records
counted only sixteen migrations from Hertford County before
1830.

On 13 July 1832 John Wheeler wrote his will, and on 7 August he
died at the age of sixty- two. His widow Sarah was thirty-six. John
Hill was named executor of the estate, along with Wheeler's
brother-in-law James Worrell (his sister's husband). John Hill was
married and living in Washington, and presumably returned to
carry out these duties. John left individual gifts of money, personal
property, and real estate clearly defined. He left the house and lot
to Sarah for her lifetime. The boundaries of this property were
described as starting "opposite John Anderson's brick house (for-
merly James Morgan)"; touched Lewis M. Cowper's line on the
west, a gully separating him from the field he rented Patrick
Brown; and went along Main Street (now Broad). He directed his
executors to draw up the deed for his brother Ephraim's house,
sold to Henry Waring. He asked for a deed to be made to James
Banks for the "houses & lots known as the Academy lot" already
sold to Banks, as soon as "he pays the Bond which I hold against
him" (£2 to £3000). John Hill Wheeler was bequeathed the 250
acres on the Princeton road deeded to him at age 21, and "the fee
simple on Houses & lots now occupied by Mrs. Gordon as a tav-
ern." Daughter Sarah Clifton was to receive his piano forte. There
was a $5000 gift to Samuel J. Wheeler, after deducting amounts
already given him. Sarah was bequeathed the negroes she brought
to her marriage plus three more, $1000 in cash, and $500 for a
year's provisions. With the $1,000 she was to purchase necessary

64 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

articles from their household furniture which was to be evaluated
and then taken by her at three-fourths its assessed value. The
residue of John Wheeler's estate was to be divided between his
daughter Julia, by then married to Godwin Cotton Moore, and his
children by his present wife. He provided for his granddaughter
Eliza Ann Clifton by directing that if her portion from her
deceased father Jonas Clifton was not equal to that of his children,
it should be made so."'

His estate was large. Accounts made by his executors after his
death in 1832 and brought up to 24 May 1834 totalled $43,392.36,
out of which $23,253 was still uncollected. Part of this was interest
from August 1832 to May 1834.*^^

Sarah Wheeler died less than a year after her husband. She made
her will on 11 July 1833, and died on 13 July. She left cash to her
youngest daughter, Anna Stoughton, and son Junius, and gave
them each a "Burrow Bed and furniture." She gave her daughter
Sarah C. Wheeler "one carved mahogany bed stead with bed &
bedding & her choice of a sett of Bed Curtains also my new black
cloak." She gave Julia W Moore "a curled maple Bed Stead with
Bed & Bedding and a Sett of Bed Curtains." She gave her "beloved
Brother William Cheatham now in the state of Alabama" $30.'"

Following John Wheeler's death on 7 August 1832 and Sarah
Wheeler's on 13 July 1833, inventories were made of their property,
real and personal, and of their notes due and expenses paid out.
These were duly entered in the large ledger entitled "Hertford
County Record of Accounts," 1830-36, 1836-40, which fortunately
escaped the 1862 courthouse fire. The extensive Wheeler invento-
ries and estate accounts contain much information that is useful in
interpreting how the Wheeler family lived.

First was a general inventory of John Wheeler's personal prop-
erty, taken on 15 November 1832. It itemized goods that were prob-
ably sold in the store and tanyard, as well as a separate listing,
"Household and Kitchen Goods." Next was "an inventory of notes
belonging to the estate," covering seven ledger pages and a much
shorter inventory of "money & notes" received since last return.
Another inventory listed the evaluation and sale of his personal
property, entered item by item, with amounts realized and buyers

MAY 1994 65

named; it took up ten and a half pages in the court ledger. These
were objects not chosen by the widow or of no concern to her.
What did concern Sarah was the subsequent evaluation of house-
hold and kitchen furniture chosen in accordance with her hus-
band's will. This evaluation gives the clearest picture of the con-
tents of the Wheeler house at the time of John Wheeler's death.

Money received and property sold continued to take up the
executors' time and were duly entered at May Court 1833. Then
Sarah Wheeler died, and her estate property was inventoried. Her
estate sale took place on 1 November 1833. John Wheeler's son
Samuel Jordan bought almost all the items at her sale. A few
objects were bought by his brother John Hill and his brother-in-
law Godwin C. Moore, who was Sarah Wheeler's executor. Sarah's
estate accounts were entered also. By February Court 1836 sales of
John Wheeler's real estate were returned, and, finally, a long
"accounts current" up to 24 May 1834 was submitted by James
Worrell and John H. Wheeler. This last account was entered in the
1836 to 1840 section of the ledger, even though it was entered at
May Court 1835.'"

The inventories that best reflect the Wheeler household goods
are reproduced in Appendix II: (A) the general inventory of John
Wheeler's personal property, from 15 November 1832 (household
entries only; the sections relating to the store goods have not been
included because of length); (B) the sale of his personal property
and the evaluation of the household items chosen by Sarah Clifton
Wheeler under the terms of her husband's will (again, only the
household entries are reproduced here); (C) the inventory of
Sarah Clifton Wheeler's estate property after her death, entered in
the November court term 1833; and (D) the estate sale of her prop-
erty on 1 November 1833. Sarah Wheeler's inventories involved
only the household and kitchen goods.

The first inventory was of John Wheeler's personal, as opposed
to real, property. Items were entered in continuous running form
without punctuation or monetary values. There was a kind of
rough grouping in the list, which may indicate more than one
inventory source, although attempts to categorize them as a whole
are not conclusive. The store inventory was first, the items mainly

66 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

grouped in "parcels," such as "parcel of saddlery and harness
materials," "parcel of shoemakers' tools," "large parcel of books,"
"parcel of lining skins. . . . upper Leather hog skins." Then came a
brief list of equipment, such as a two-horse wagon, a Jersey wagon,
a cart and wheels, a wheelbarrow, two boilers, and a stove.

The store goods were followed by a few articles of furniture: a
looking glass, two curtained bedsteads, a sideboard, bureau, and
bookcase desk. The furniture group appears to be the beginning of
the second division, as another large group of store goods followed
it. This contained "parcels of crockery," "parcel of glass ware,"
"parcel of nails," "a box of needles and combs," plus pocket knives,
scissors, drugs, spices, paints, chalk tobacco, etc. Interspersed
among these were objects related specifically to storekeeping, such
as brass scales, medicine scales, and a tin canister, and personal
items like a shaving box, a teapot, and a jug and basin. At the end
were "2 hair trunks, 1 easy chair & cover, 1 mahogany cradle one
four wheel carriage and harness Large parcel of Leather now in the
Vats of the Tan Yard Negro Slaves to wit Will & wife Patsy Jacob
Isaac Dick Sam Chunk Sam Britt 2 smal Negroes bill & luiza 1 Tan
Yard horse 1 bridle & saddle."

A review of the store goods reveals them to have been primarily
utilitarian. Luxury items such as jewelry and silver were not part of
this stock; nor were the many textiles and clothing items carried by
some merchants. Wheeler's few textiles included some coachmak-
er's trimmings, a few yards of shirting and vesting, some serge, and
a few wool hats. He had large amounts of saddler's, harness-mak-
er's, and coachmaker's supplies. Among household needs he
stocked buttons, scissors, needles, knives, brushes, etc., and quite a
lot of crockery and glass. There were 330 lots of store goods,
including books. Some of the books up for sale had been intended
for retail, while others — various volumes related to religion,
"Cowper's Poems, "9 vols. B. Poems" [Byron's poems?], "Dants"
[Dante's?], and "5 B. Library [Bible?]" — would have been in John
Wheeler's personal library.

The estate sale, whose results were recorded in the second inven-
tory (Appendix IIB), was attended by a few members of the family:
John Hill Wheeler, Samuel Jordan Wheeler, Godwin C. Moore,

MAY 1994 67

and Sarah Wheeler, although it was mainly patronized by other
area residents. John Hill bought about fourteen items, including a
gun and an astragal lamp. Samuel Jordan bought the "Bookcase &
desk" for $24.25. Godwin C. Moore bought the carriage and har-
ness and two slaves for $454. Sarah bought the easy chair and two
trunks. William Trader, father of James M. Trader, who would
eventually own the Wheeler house, bought the sideboard. The sale
realized $1969.59. The leather in the tanyard vats was sold sepa-
rately to Thomas Finney, who later gave his note for the tanyard as
well.

The inventories are useful in casting light on how the house was
used. They also represent what a relatively prosperous merchant
may have had in his house. The four lists of household furnishings
at first glance look a great deal alike. They each start off with a
large Brussels carpet and a hearth rug, mahogany dining tables, a
dozen hair bottom chairs, a sofa, and brass andirons. But as they
progress, matching them up side by side by entries becomes
increasingly difficult, especially when the "parcels" are separated
into actual lists, and objects are compared in different ways. How-
ever, the comparisons do add more information to some of the
entries. Thus it becomes clear that the dining tables were a set of
three, that the mahogany chairs and sofa were upholstered with
hair cloth, that what appear to be "painted landscapes" in one
inventory were actually "printed" when compared to the entry for
"engraved landscapes" in another. The cupboard was also called a
"beaufat," the "common" sitting chairs were "Windsor chairs," a
set of iron andirons were "common" andirons, two busts were
plaster of Paris, and a "bureau" was "a toilet bureau and glass." The
"buggy" listed at the end of the first inventory was called a "4
wheeler carriage" in the second, and the two food safes were
described as a "wire safe" and a "cloth safe." The repetition of
items is also helpful for deciphering the court clerk's handwriting,
especially where abbreviations are involved.

The inventories examined together create the impression of
room-by-room entries, but only certain objects can be placed with
any degree of confidence. The room on the first floor where all
four Hsts begin is probably the east room, where there was a fire-

68 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

place. The hearth rug, the fireplace tools and fender, two "fancy"
flower pots, and the large overmantel mirror all belong to a fire-
place and are listed at the beginning. A settee and lamp are listed
as standing in the passage. China, glass, and silver were probably in
the cupboard, or "beaufat." Some objects may have been collected
from several places for the inventory. An example of this may be
the following items: a jar of arrowroot, two demijohns, two large
"waiters" (trays), some medicine bottles, a traveling case, a pine
table, two wash basins, a water pail, and three brass candle sticks.
These may have been scattered among the cupboard, the back
porch, part of the passage, and the closet under the stairs.

Fourteen curtains were listed in the house. These were described
as a set of four "white dimity curtains," "four white curtains," "two
white curtains," and four "callico window curtains." The calico
curtains were evaluated at $20.00. Their high worth and the fact
that they were calico strongly suggests that they were reception
room furnishings. "Furniture callicoes," as curtain material was
called in the earlier nineteenth century, were fashionable and
costly. Many were imported from England and they were generally
printed with floral patterns, although plain colors were also avail-
able. Like chintz, they were often glazed. Calico curtains would
have been fringed and tied either up or back with cords and tas-
sels.

Calicos were available in Murfreesboro as early as 1813, as indi-
cated by storekeeper J. Dawley's advertisement listing "furniture
callicoes" among his goods.'' Textile imports could also have come
from Norfolk or New York. In 1827 the North Carolina Chronicle
carried advertisements of goods shipped in on the schooner Pigot
to the firms of Southall & Parker and Morgan & Cowper. The lat-
ter's wares included "callicoes, some very rich patterns."'^

Overall, the quantity of objects in the inventories is not large.
The given value of individual pieces may say more than the num-
ber entered. For instance, the large Brussels carpet and hearth rug
were valued at $50.00, and the other two room carpets at $35.00
and $25.00. Brussels carpets, made of looped pile, were considered
luxurious and fashionable. Since they were woven in strips and
seamed, they could be any desired size. The other carpets are not

MAY 1994 69

described. They were either smaller or of a different weave, such as
ingrain or double-weave.

Sarah Wheeler's inventory (Appendix IIC) added a "Venetian"
carpet, listed near the kitchen inventory, which went for $25.00 in
the sale of her estate. This was a striped flat-weave carpet, usually
utilitarian and hard-wearing. The stair carpet was the least expen-
sive of the lot, worth, with its rods, only $5.00. It may have been
old and even rolled up, since it was listed with the loom gear. God-
win C. Moore bought it at Sarah's sale.

Other valuable pieces were the bedsteads with their bedding. In
Sarah's inventories was a "large Bed [featherbed] Bedstead and
furniture [hangings]," which can be recognized by its $55.00 sale
price as the large maple bedstead owned by John Wheeler. It seems
likely that this was John and Sarah's own bed. The complete list of
beds and bedding in the 1832 evaluation (App. IIB) was as follows:

1 large maple bedstead and furniture & bed $55.00

1 sopha bedstead & bed 25.00

1 cot 2.50

1 mahogany carved bedstead upstairs & bed and furniture

35.00
1 maple bed & furniture 30.00
1 crib & [?] 8.00 [not in Sarah Wheeler's estate sale]
1 bed & furniture 15.00
1 trundle bedstead bed & furniture 10.00 [not in the first

inventory]

1 bed & furniture 15.00

2 suits of bed curtains 15.00.

There were actually only four regular bedsteads of the size we
now consider "double beds." The "sopha bedstead" was probably
some sort of daybed. The separate "beds" were mattresses. Consid-
ering the general size of John Wheeler's family, the number of
bedsteads does not seem large. It must be remembered that the
inventories represented the house as it was in 1832 and 1833. Two
"courtain bedsteads" (high-post bedsteads) were sold for $3.00
and $3.50 at John Wheeler's personal property sale. These may

70 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

have been in the house and not wanted by Sarah. Two extra mat-
tresses with bedding ("beds and furniture") were part of the inven-
tories, possibly kept because of their greater value, $15.00 each.

The many changes in the family over the years suggests that
sleeping arrangements could have fluctuated widely. Most high-
post and low-post bedsteads could be taken apart quite easily and
moved or stored at will. What we now seem to need in the way of
privacy was generally rare, and reserved more for invalids or the
very old. Beds were usually shared by at least two people, and
more than one bed could be placed in a room.

An 1830 North Carolina document that describes a family bed-
room can be found in the Pettigrew papers. After his wife died in
childbirth, Pettigrew, devastated, wrote: "I retire to my cell [bed-
room] and what are my reflections? There is the crib, where my
dear wife had nursed her infants . . . and where I expected my last
would be, now vacant. There is the spot where my three other little
innocents were wont to lay, and where I so often have got on my
knees & kissed them. Now a bare floor. . . . There is the mattress
[on which his wife died]. . . . There is the beadstead on which I am
to lay my weary limbs.""' The parents slept in one bed, except dur-
ing childbirth, when the wife would lie on a mattress; three small
children slept on a trundle, and the baby slept in the cradle. This
picture makes it possible to imagine some of the ways the Wheel-
ers put their children and themselves to bed; it also is a reminder
of the many births and deaths of the Wheeler children.

The first inventory of John Wheeler's personal property men-
tions a cradle, but it is referred to in no other property list. This is
probably because it was being used for the baby Anna Stoughton
Wheeler and then was given to Julia Moore for her first baby in
1833. A mahogany cradle (fig. 9) has descended in the family
through Samuel Wheeler's descendants, and was used for his
daughter Kate. It is conceivable, although difficult to tell by its
general style, that this is the same cradle mentioned in the inven-
tory.

John Wheeler may have patronized local cabinetmakers for his
furniture. Two men identified as cabinetmakers were Morriss
Hatchell and Jordan Beale.'^ Both featured in Wheeler's estate

MAY 1994 71

8. Cradle, mahogany, early to mid-nineteenth century. This is documented as being
in the Wheeler family since at least 1837, and may be the cradle mentioned in John
Wheeler's personal property inventory. Private collection, on loan to the Wheeler
House.

records, thus establishing a connection with him, but neither was
Hsted in a way proving patronage. Hatchell, Hsted in the 1820 Hert-
ford County census, bought land from John Wheeler's estate."
Beale appears to have lived in neighboring Northampton County.
He attended the sale of Wheeler's personal property on 15 Novem-
ber 1832.^"

A quite common source of household purchases was the auction
or estate sale. For instance, in 1827 there was a sale at James M.
Hill's house consisting of "Beds, Tables Chairs, Bureaus, one very
useful Beaufat, &c. &c." Wheeler is known to have attended at least
one such sale. He purchased a looking glass at George Dunn's
estate sale in 1830.''

The Wheelers had twenty-six Windsor chairs. They may have
been from a North Carolina maker, or, more likely, imported.
Importing from the north became even easier with the advent of

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

steamships, especially after the Edenton and Plymouth Steamboat
Company was founded in 1818-1819.'" Goods could come by special
order or be bought from stores stocking them. Edenton was close
enough to be a supplier of Windsor chairs, and Murfreesboro itself
could have been a source. Cheshire & Cox of Edenton kept an
assortment of Windsor chairs on hand in 1818 and 1819, as did
William & Joseph Rea of Murfreesboro, advertising "300 Fancy &
Windsor Chairs."'"*

Wheeler also owned a piano forte, which he willed to his daugh-
ter Sarah Clifton. It was valued in his estate at $250.00. This type of
fine furniture was available in Murfreesboro: Morgan & Cowper's
30 June 1827 advertisement announced "some elegant FURNI-
TURE, among which are Side-boards, Bureaus, Chairs and an ele-
gant PIANO FORTE."

The author has found much material on the post-1832 period of
the house that has not been included in this article. Later material
can often shed valuable light on early records, but the sheer bulk of
the nineteenth-century documents makes it difficult to choose and
compress the materials effectively for this article. The Southall-
Bowen papers have already been mentioned, and there are impor-
tant diaries, such as Kate Wheeler's i860 diary and Samuel J.
Wheeler's diaries from 1865 to 1879, two years of which were writ-
ten while he lived in the Wheeler house.-" The post-1862 Hertford
County deeds are also valuable for the information they provide
by copying parts of lost deeds or by making references to former
property holders. Some of the property owned by John Wheeler
has been traced in this way.

After Sarah Wheeler died in 1833, Samuel Jordan returned from
his medical studies in Philadelphia, and by 1834 had bought the
house. He married in 1836, and he and his wife Lucinda Pugh
Bond lived in the house until 1867, when they moved to Willow
Hall, a Bond family home in Bertie County. Samuel Jordan
declared bankruptcy in 1842. His brother-in-law, Godwin C.
Moore, purchased Samuel's real estate and furniture in 1844, and
on the same day sold half of all these holdings to Samuel's father-
in-law, Lewis Bond."" At some point Bond acquired Moore's half of

MAY 1994 73

the house, and willed the whole to his daughter Lucinda/- She
came into possession of the property on her father's death in 1851.
In 1872, the house was sold to James M. Trader.

Later nineteenth-century (post-1862) Hertford County deeds
contain important materials for identifying John Wheeler's real
estate holdings. Some of the property not found in the list of his
real estate sold or in other estate records has been found there.
Boundaries of properties described can be checked against other
known boundaries. Architectural understanding of the house is
also subject to change. When all the available documentary mater-
ial is reviewed, an even more complete picture of the house should
certainly emerge.

It is often said that the best research is "ongoing." This is cer-
tainly true of research for a historic site, where information is
never static. It is to be hoped that the documentary research pre-
sented here for the Wheeler house will add to the plans and expec-
tations of all those involved in its preservation and historic inter-
pretation.

Audrey H. Michie is a freelance consultant engaged in research
relating to historic interiors.

74 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

APPENDIX I

Account of Sales of the real Estate of John Wheeler deed, made by the Executor
1836 on a Credit from the 1st lany."

One Warf & Ware house at the river
1 house at the River where
Wadkins Malone lives
1 house & field near the Tanyard

1 house & lot near Lawrence Wevers

lot & Stable adjacent Thereto

lot & house down Town near
Mr. P. Browns

The fields adjacent thereto

The Clifton house & lot & store
where John Wheeler Dect kept
in frount of J.W. Southall

The Houses & fields where John
WheeJer Dect died

2 unimproved lots up town

Stable & Lot in back of the

Howell Jones Jot
2 smalJ Negroes Sold for Cash

This 30th of May 1835

0 Southall & Johnson

$202.00

Lewis M. Cowper

34.00

Samuel J. Wheeler

50.00

100.00

John W. Southall

26.00

Lewis M. Cowper

67.00

81.00

The Commissioners of
the Presbyterian Church

Samuel J. Wheeler
Barney B. Usher

John W. Southall
' Edward K. Jegets

James Worrell

Jno. H. Wheeler

Exec of J. Wheeler Deed.

600.00

500.00
30.00

51.50
500.00

From the Hertford County, North Carohna, February Court of Pleas &c, 1836. This
account of sales was returned to Court on Oath by Jawes Worrell & ordered to be
Recorded —

Test. L. M. Cowper

MAY 1994

APPENDIX II

The Wheeler Estate Inventories and Estate Accounts*

A. An Inventory of the property of the Estate of John Wheeler dec[ease]d taken
the 15 of November 1832. [Sale property list first].

House hold & Kitchen Furniture [originally in paragraph form].

1 Large Brussels Carpet & hearth rug

1 Sett Mahogany Tables

1 mahogany folding Table

1 dozen hair bottom chairs [seats of

hair cloth]
1 do. Sophia [mahogany sofa with

haircloth upholstery]

1 pr. brass hands irons & shovel &

tongs

2 fancy flour [flower] pots

2 glass shades [candle shades]
2 plated Candle Sticks

1 Large mantle Looking Glass
4 Callico Window Curtains

2 Large printed Landscap

2 tin Spit Boxes [spittoons]
1 Settee & Lamps
1 Large dining Table
1 small do. [dining table]
26 commin setting chairs
1 Cupboard
1 andirons
parcel of Silverware
parcel of Glass & crockery
plated tray & Snuffers
parcel of Knives & forks
parcel of China

1 Stone Jar of arrowroot

2 Large Waiters
Medicine bottles
1 Traveling Case

2 Large demijohns

1 pine Table

2 Wash bassons [basins]
parcel of pails & Tubs

3 brass Candle Sticks
1 set Casters

1 set Brittania Ware

4 white dimity Curtains

1 maple bidd stead [bedstead]
bed [featherbed] & hair matrass
1 Mahogany Rocking Chair
1 Sopha bed Stead & bidd cott
1 Bureau & Glass

1 Work Stand

2 bust plaster parris
1 Wash Stand
baisin & pitcher

1 Ivory Clock

parcel of flour [floor] Carpits

2 sets bed Curtains

1 Mahogany Carvd bedStead
[carved mahogany bedstead]
beds & furniture [featherbeds and

bedding]
1 maple do. [bedstead]
Two Card Tables
1 Large Looking Glass
4 White Window Curtains

3 pitchers

1 p[air] of and Irons
1 Bearreu [bureau?] crib

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

bed & furniture

2 brass Candle Sticks & Snuffers

1 Looking Gkiss

2 beds & furniture
1 pine Table

1 picture

1 mahogany do. [table]

1 Loom & Warping Barrs

1 BaithingTub

1 set Weaving Gear

1 pr. of Iron Andirons

1 Stair Carpet & Rods

2 pr. flatlrons

1 Tin Kitchen

2 brass Kittles
Parcel of Pals [pails]
Kettles

parcel of Tin Ware

1 Stone Chearn
parcel of stone lars

2 Safes

1 wooden Churn
parcel of Jugs & bottles

1 Large Leather Trunk
1 buggy & Harness
1 Wagon & dear

1 cart & wheels

2 horses

3 Cows & 1 cow shelter [or corn

shellerl
parcel of plows [ploughs] & Weading

hoes
Shovel & Spade
1 half peck Measure
1 Garden Rake & 2 axes
1 wheel Barrow [sic] & Grind Stone
1 Cutting Knife
1 Coffee mill
17 hogs

ioo8 lb. of Bacon
parcel of Lard
7/: bushels of Wheat
17 Bbls. [barrels] of Corn
the above property was taken by the

Widow in pursuance to the Will
[Cash ... up to date $2573.48]

B. The following Articles were among the Household and Kitchen furniture of
the Late John Wheeler deed, and were Settled by the Widow Sarah and the
following valuations were placed upon them. ... [in columns in the original]

1 large Brussels Carpet

1 Hearth Rug with Carpet [combined] $50.00

1 Set (3) Mahogany Tables 50.00

1 Mahogany folding Table 12.00

1 doz. Hair bottom Chairs 48.00
1 do. do. do. Sopha

[mahogany sofa with haircloth upholstery] 40.00

1 pr. brass And irons fender Shovel & Tongs 10.00

2 fancy flower pots 13.00
2 Glass Shades & 2 plated candle sticks 5.00

1 Large Mantle Looking Glass 20.00
4 Callico Window Curtains 20.00

2 Large printed Land scapes 5-oo
2 tin Spit boxes 1.00
1 Settee & Lamp (passage) 10.00
1 Large Dining Table 8.00
1 small Mahogany Table 4-oo
26 Common Sitting chairs 15.00
1 Beau fat [cupboard] 4-00

MAY 1994

1 pr. Iron Andirons

2.00

1 Silver Coffee pot i silver Tea pot

40.00

2 Glass pitchers

1.00

2 do. decanters

1.00

6 do. [glass] dishes

2.50

1 plated Tray & Snuffers

2.50

2 Glass Stands

2.50

14 wine Glasses

3.00

2 Glass Cake dishes

1.00

1 do. [glass] Sugar dish

1.25

1 do. [glass] Milk pot & butter dish

•75

2 Glass bowls

3.00

3 Waiters

1.00

6 Glass Tumblers

•75

2 Lamps

1.50

1 hous[e] bell

.50

V2 dozen Silver Spoons (Large)

20.00

13 do. do. [silver spoons] (Small)

20.00

1 do. [silver] Sugar tongs

2.50

7 Sauce Spoons

.50

V2 " [doz.] Tea Spoons (Small)

15.00

1 Silver Ladle

5.00

2 doz. Knives & forks

2.50

1 carving Knife & Fork

.25

1 set Large Knives & forks V2 doz. Small do.

5.00

1 Sett Gih Edgd. China

8.00

1 do. [set] blue China (broken sett)

2.00

1 Stone Jar Arrow Root

.50

2 Large Waiters

Medicine bottles

1.00

1 traveling case

•75

1 Large Demijohn

2.00

1 pine Table & 2 Wash basins

1.25

1 water Pail & 3 brass Candle sticks

1.00

1 set Casters

2.50

1 Set Brittania Ware Coffee/tea/sugar dish & milk

2.50

7 blue dishes

3.00

Vi doz. blue plates (Soup)

•75

Vi doz. Large Dinner do. [plates]

.62

1 do. [doz.] Breakfast

.38

Vi doz. Supper do. [plates] 4 dinner do. [plates]

.25

3 coverd dishes & Gravy do

2.00

2 coverd Gravy dishes

1.00

2 Milk pots & 1 Slop bowl

.25

1 salt Cellar & 2 pickle dishes & Coffee pot bucket

1.85

4 White dimity Curtains in beed Room

8.00

1 large Maple bed Stead & furniture & bed

55.00

78 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

1 Rocking Chair mahogany & bed & Hare Mattress

1 Sopha bed Stead & bed

iCot

1 Toilet Beaureau & Glass [dressing table & mirror)

1 Work Stand

2 bust plaster of parriss

1 Wash Stand bason & pitcher
1 time piece Ivory Clock

1 Carpet

2 suits bed curtains

1 mahogany carvd. bed Sted up Stairs & bed & furniture
1 Large Looking Glass
4 white window Curtains

3 pictures

1 R [?] andirons brass
1 wash Bowls & pitcher
1 Carpet

1 Crib & Barn [bureau?]
1 bed & furniture

1 Trundle bed Stead & bed Furniture

2 brass Candle sticks & Snuffers
1 pr. Andirons

1 Looking Glass

2 white Window Curtains
1 bed & furniture

1 pine Table & Picture

1 Mahogany Table

1 Loom & Warping Bars

1 Baithing tub

1 Set Weaving Gears

1 Pr. Iron andirons

1 Stair Carpet & Rods

2 [pr.?] Flat Irons

2 Large Tubs & 3 pails

1 Tin Kitchen 1 Brass Kettle Heater & pan

3 Bred [bread] trays 2 Iron Kettles & pots

1 pan 2 Sieves 2 Ovens [dutch ovens] 1 Spider 1 Gridiron
1 R. [K?] Shovel & Tongs & andirons

Waffle & Wafer Irons
1 Iron & Brass Morter Tea Kettle pot Hooks &c.
1 pine Table 1 Tin basin 3 Tin bake pans

1 Safe & 1 Large Iron Kettle & Stone Churn

4 Large Washing tubs

2 tin Milk buckets 1 Large Brass Kettle
1 pot & racks

1 Stone jar 2 Milk Pails

2 Crockery Milk pans 2 bowls

16.00

25.00

2.50

1.00

.50

2.00

1.00

35.00

33.00

15.00

35.00

4.00

2.00

•75

.25

1.25

28.00

8.00

15.00

10.00

1.00

•25
2.00

•75
15.00

.50
2.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
4.00

•75

•75
1.15
1.50
2.50

1.50
1.87
1.65
3-50
•75
4.50

•75
2.00
7.50

MAY 1994

1 Stone Jar 2.00

1 Wire Safe & Cloth Safe [wire mesh food safe] 5.00

1 Wooden Churn & Jugs & a parcel of bottles 1.25

1 Large Leather Trunk 12.00

1 buggy (4 Wheeler Carriage) & Harness 150.00

1 Wagon & Gear 25.00

1 Cart & wheels 10.00

2 Carriage Horses & Bays [?] 145.00
iCorn Sheller [?] 4.00
2 Dagger plows [ploughs] 1 frame 3 hors[e]

culler [collars] plow Gear 2.50

2 Weading hoes 1 Grubing do. [hoe] 2 Shovels 1 spade 1.50

V2 & peck Measures 1 Rake 2 axes 1.00

1 wheel barrow & Grindstone 1.50

1 Cutting Knife 1.95

17 Head of Hogs 38.00

1 Coffee Mill 3.00

1008 lb. bacon c. 8^- cents a lb. 85.65
128 lb. Lard 49 lb. a 7<t and 79 lb. a 94: [incorrect total] 7.11

yVi bushels wheat a 1 $7.50

17/^ bbls. c[orn] $352.50

[Total] 1478.29
From which Sum 25 pcent is to be deducted

in pursuance of the will to be charged to

Mrs. Wheeler 368.51

[Total] 1109.78
[February Court of Pleas 1833]

C. An Inventory of the property found by Execu[tor] belonging to the Estate of
Sarah Wheeler dec [ease] d returned an oath to the court of Pleas & Quarter Ses-
sions ... at November Term a.d. 1833.

[This account originally ran together rather than being listed in columns.]

Household Furniture Cons[is]ting of 2 printed Land Scapes

Large Brussels Carpet & Hearth Rug 2 tin spit boxes

1 Set Mahogany Dining Tables No. 3 1 Settee

1 do. [mahogany] folding Table 1 Large Glass Lamp

1 doz. hair bottom Mahogany Chairs 1 Large Dinning Table (Injur [e]d)

1 Sofa 1 Small Mahogany Table

1 Large Mantle Glass Mirror 1 Beafat

1 pr. brass and irons fender Shovel & 26 Common Setting Chairs

Tongs 1 pr. brass andirons

2 Glass Shades 1 Silver Coffee & Silver Tea pot
1 pr. plated Candle sticks 2 Glass pitchers

Snuffers & Tray 2 decanters

4 Callico Window Curtains 4 dishes

80 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

2 Glass Cake dishes
1 Glass Sugar dish

1 butter dish

2 Glass Lamps (Small)
1 house bell

1 doz. Large Table Spoons (Silver)

1 doz. Silver Tea Spoons

1 doz. Knives & forks

1 t[ea]. Sett Gilt Edged China

1 Set blue do. (Broken) (blue tea set]

2 Large Waiters
2 demijohns

2 Wash bowls

3 brass Candle Sticks

1 Sett Casters (Injurd)
1 Jar (Arrow root)

1 traveling Case

3 blue dishes

!/: doz. blue Soup plates & Break fast
do. [plates]

2 Cove [red] dishes

1 Milk pot & 1 Slop bowls

2 Salt Cellars

4 white dimity Curtains

1 Large bed [featherbed] bed Stead &
furniture

1 hair bottoms Rocking Chair

[haircloth-covered seat]
Sofa bed Stead bed & furniture

2 Silver Ladles

10 Silver Tea Spoons
salt spoon & sugar Tongs
1 Cot & 2 bust (plaster)
1 Wash Stand Basin & pitcher
1 time piece

1 carpet

2 Mahogany Card Tables
1 Large Looking Glass

& White Window Curtains

1 pr. brass Andirons

1 Warsh bowl & pitcher

1 Carpet

1 Crib & Bureau

1 bed & bed Stead & furniture

1 Trundle bed Stead bed & furniture

[trundle bed & bedding]
1 pr. Andirons

1 Looking Cilass

1 Stairs [sic] (Carpet and rods

1 silver plated Cake barsket

1 Venetian (Carpet

1 leathern |5;V] Trunk

hu'culory ol Kitchen hurniture as

follows
1 tin Kitchen Heater

1 brass Kettle

2 bread Trays
1 Iron Kettle

1 pot

1 pan

2 sieves

2 Ovens & 1 Spider
one pr. flat Irons

2 Tubs & three pails

1 pr. Tongs Shovels & andirons

1 Brass Morter [sic]

1 Tea Kettle

1 pot Hooks & Tubb & basin

3 bake pans

1 Safe [food safe]
1 Large Iron Kettle

1 Stone Churn

2 Wash Tubs

2 tin Milk bucketts
1 brass Kettle

1 pot & Racks
7 Stone Jars

2 Milks pails

2 milk pans & i bowls

11 Stone lars

1 Wire Safe

1 Wooden Churn

1 Loom & Warping bars

1 Baithing Tub

2 Tubs & 3 pails
1 Coffee Mill

and of other articles as follows
1 buggy & Harness
D. An a/c [account] of Sales of the
property belonging to the Estate of
Sarah Wheeler dec [eased] made by
Ex[ecut]or November i, 1833

MAY 1994

1 Waggon & Gear 2 axes

1 Cart & Wheels 2 Weading Hoes

2 Horses one Grubing Hoe

3 Cows 1 Measure

25 head of Hoggs [sic] 1 Grind Stone

25 Bbls. [barrels] Corn 1 Wheel barrow

one Corn Sheller one Cutting Knife

one dagger [plough] Of valuable papers . . .

1 frame

Collers [horse collars] November Court of Pleas . . . 1833

D. An a/c [account] of Sales of the property belonging to the Estate of Sarah
Wheeler dec[eased] made by Ex[ecut]or November 1, 1833

[All items were bought by Samuel J. Wheeler except those marked "GCM" for
Godwin C. Moore or "JHW" for John Hill Wheeler-their names were written
out in the original]

1 Large Brussell Carpet & H [earth] Rug $50.00

1 set of Mahogany Tables No 3 Not Sold

1 folding do. do. [mahogany tables] GCM 12.50

1 doz. hair bottom Chairs Mahogany JHW 48.00

1 Large do. do. [hair bottom mahogany] Sophia 40.00

2 Glass Shades & Plated CandleSticks GCM 5.00

1 Large Mantle Glass 20.00
4 Callico Window Curtain S20.00

2 engraved Land Scapes 5.00
2 tin Spit boxes Settee & Lamp 11.00
1 Large Dining Table In (ar) [injured] 4.00
1 Boffat 26 chairs Windsor 19.00
1 pr brass Andirons Shovel fender & Tongs 10.00
1 pr. Andirons (common) 2.00

1 Silver Coffe & 1 do. Tea Pot & Case JHW 40.75

2 Glass Pitchers 1.00
2 decanters 4 Glass dishes 2.69
1 Pr. plated Snuffers & Tray GCM 2.50

1 Glas Cake dish 1 butter do. [dish] 2.25

2 do. [glass] Bowls & 3 Waiters 4.00
2 Glass Lamps 1.50
6 Large Silver Table Spoons 20.00
17 Small do. [silver] Tea do. [spoons] 26.41
1 house Bell .50
1 small Mahogany Table 4.00

I pr. Silver Sugar Tongs 2.50
6 Large Silver Table Spoons GCM 20.00

II Silver Tea Spoons 26.00
1 do. [silver] Ladle 5.00
1 do. do. GCM 5.00

82 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

1 doz. Knives Forks [sic] (Broken)
1 Broken Set Knives & forks
1 Set Guilt Edged China

1 Broken set Blue do. IC^hina]

2 Large Waiters & lar Arrowroot
2 do. [large] Demijohns

1 pine Table 2 wash Bowls

1 water pail & 3 Brass Candle sticks

1 set Castors & Lot of Crockery

4 White dimity Curtains GCM

1 Large Bed Bedstead & furniture

1 hair Bottom Rocking Chair GCM

1 Sofia [sic] Bed Bedstead & &c.

1 Cot & 2 bust [5/V] plaster

1 White Bowl & pitcher & Stand

1 Time Piece (Clock)

1 Carpet & Glass Mirror (Large)
4 White Window Curtains

2 Mahogany Card Tables

2 pitchers & pr. brass andirons

1 Carpet 1 Wash Bowl & Pitcher

1 [sic] 1 Stair Carpet GCM

1 Bid [sic] Bead Stead & furniture

1 Trundle bed & do.

1 Bed & furniture

1 Looking Glass & Andirons

2 white Window Curtains
1 Loom & Warping Bars

1 Baithing Tub

1 set Weaving Gear & andirons

1 pr. flat Irons 2 Tubs & 3 pails

1 Tin Kitchen heater & pan & 1 brass Kettle

2 Bread Trays 1 Iron Kettle & pots
1 pan 2 Sieves 2 Ovens & Spider

1 pr. Shovel & Tongs Andirons & Waffle [iron]
1 Brass Morter Tea Kettle pot hooks &c.
1 pine Table tin baisin 3 Bake pans

1 Safe 1 Large Iron Kettle 1 Stone Churn

2 wash tubs 2 tin Basins 1 Brass Kett[le]

I pott Racks 1 Stone Jarr 2 milk pails

II Stone Jars 2 milk pans 2 bowls
1 wire Safe 1 Cloth Safe

1 Wooden Churn
1 Buggy & Harness
1 Waggon & Gear
1 horse (Kentucky)
1 do. [horse] (Delaware)

2.78

2.00

8.00

2.00

1.00

2.00

1.25

1.00

6.42

8.00
55.00
16.00
25.00

4.50

1.00
25.00
32.00

2.00
12.00

1.00
26.25

5.00
18.00
10.00

Not Sold

2.25

■75
1.00

2.00
1.50

1-75

1.00

2.00

1.00

1.87/:

1.65

3.50

1-75

2.87

3-57

5.00

1.25

150.00

25.00

75.00

65.00

MAY 1994

1 Cart & Wheels lo.oo

3 Milch Cows 35.00

25 head of hogs 38.00

1 Corn Sheller & Cutting Knife 5.25

25 bbls. Corn a 3.00 75.00

1 Venitian [sic] Carpet @ $25.00 25.00

1 Coffee Mill 3.00

1 Glass Lantern 1.25

1 Grind Stone & Wheel Barrow 1.50

2 axes 1 Rake Bl measure 1.00
2 Weeding hoes 1 Grubing ditto [hoe] 1,50
1 dager plow frame & CoUer
1 plated Cake Basket
1 Trunk

153 lb. bacon 13.71

800 lb. blade [?] fodder 8.00

23 bushels of sweet patato 5,87

[The total given after the sale is not correct.]

1-75

10.00

84 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

NOTES

1. Interviews with E. Frank Stephenson and George T. Underwood, 1977-1978.

2. Deed from the Trader heirs to Virginia Camp Smith, 20 January 1970, Hertford
County Record of Deeds, Book 344, 634. The site was donated on 23 January 1970.

3. Hertford County Record of Accounts, 1830-36, 1836-40, Department of Cultural
Resources, Division of Archives and History, Raleigh, N.C. Division of Archives and His-
tory (henceforth cited as N.C. Archives).

4. "An Act for Establishing a Town on the Lands of William Murfree, on Meherrin River,
in the County of Hertford," in Walter Clark, ed.. State Records of North Carolina, 24, pp.
859-60. The town name was originally spelled "Murfreesborough."

5. "Petition to the North Carolina Assembly for an act to create a town o the south side
of the Meherrin River . . ," 13 September 1786. Copy on display at the Municipal Building,
Murfreesboro.

6. Thomas C. Parramore, "Federal Murfreesborough: An Exploration of the Trinity,"
unpublished lecture, 7 June 1991.

7. Letter from Dr. William L. Smith to his parents in Lyme, Connecticut, 20 March 1811,
William Nathan Harrell Smith papers, N.C. Archives; also quoted in E. Frank Stephenson,
Jr. Renaissance in Carolina 1971-1976 (Murfreesboro, N.C, 1971), 7.

8. Murfree & Gordon advertisement. Hornet's Nest, 3 September 1812.

9. "Act to Enlarge the Town of Murfreesborough," 19 November 1798, in Laws of North
Carolina {1798), 38.

10. Not all copies of Murfreesboro newspapers have survived, and there was no continu-
ously published newspaper in the town. The Hornet's Nest, Murfreesboro's first newspaper,
published from 1812 to 1814, contains several interesting references to commercial activity in
the town. U.S. Census records and Hertford Count)' tax records are useful in piecing
together early history and property holdings. Some Murfreesboro news is to be found in
other North Carolina papers, such as those from Edenton or Raleigh.

11. John P. Foote, Memoirs of the Life of Samuel E. Foote, (Cincinnati, Ohio; Robert Clark
& Co., i860); Roy Johnson papers, Box 5, N.C. Archives.

12. Winborne, Benjamin B., The Colonial and State History of Hertford County, North
Carolina (1906; reprint, Baltimore, 1976), 124.

13. "Act to Establish Post Roads . . . from Warrenton, by Jones' Store, Halifax,
Northampton c.b. Murfreesborough, Winton, Colraine, Windsor, Edenton . . . ," Raleigh
Register, 12 July 1810.

14. Winborne, 91-92; "Act to Establish an Academy in Hertford County," 20 November
1809, Laws (1809), 25-26; David T. Morgan, ed., The John Gray Blount Papers (Raleigh,
N.C, 1982), 4.

15. Smith letter, 20 March 1811.

16. Edenton Gazette, 9 October 1809, 12 March 1811.

17. Hornet's Nest, 25 February 1813, 12 November 1812.

18. Robert Warren sale in Northampton County Guardian Accounts, 1815-1825, in

MAY 1994 85

Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Index of Southern Artists and Artisans (New
York: Clearwater Publishing Co., 1985), microfiche, record no. 42319 (henceforth cited as
MESDA Index).

19. U.S. Census for Hertford County, 1810 and 1820; Hertford County, "List of Taxables in
the Town of Murfreesborough: 1815" (henceforth cited as 1815 Tax List).

20. Parramore, "Federal Murfreesborough."

21. The 1815 Tax List included a store owned by "Murfree & Gordon."

22. Deed from William H. Murfree to John Wheeler dated 4 November 1814; David A.
Barnes papers. Folder 1, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill (henceforth cited as SHC).

23. Thomas C. Parramore, "The Wheeler House in Murfreesboro: A History of the
House and Its Early Inhabitants," manuscript, 1976, 20.

24. Hornet's Nest, 4 November 1813.
25. 1815 Tax List.

26. Winborne, 139.

27. Albert Gallatin Wheeler, The Genealogical and Encyclopedic History of the Wheeler
Family in America (Boston, 1914). All genealogical information about the Wheeler family is
taken from this source unless otherwise noted.

28. George McKay, New York City Register, and the New York City Directories. Informa-
tion courtesy of May N. Stone, New York Historical Society.

29. John Hill Wheeler, Historical Sketches of North Carolina from 1584 to 185: Compiled
from Original Records, Official Documents, and Traditional Statements (1851; reprint, Balti-
more, 1961), ch. 39; Edenton Gazette, 15 December 1796.

30. Parramore, "Wheeler House," 3.

31. U.S. Census, 1800, Murfreesborough, 738; U.S. Census, 1810, with Jabez entered under
"Jabe Wheeler" with a wife and two daughters.

32. Hornet's Nest, 3 September 1812, 15 April 1813.

33. Ibid., 31 December 1812.

34. Parramore, "Wheeler House"; the two sheriffs lists were in the Halifax Journal, 19
December 1796, and the Raleigh Register, 2 March 1809.

35. Deed, 1814.

36. James Elliott Moore, "Wheeler Reunion Address," speech presented in Murfrees-
boro, 26 April 1980.

37. The Hornet's Nest, 26 November 1812, 28 January 1813. On 24 June 1873, William P.
Morgan and Garrison M. Smith rented the Winton tanyard. This is not to be confused with
John Wheeler's Mufreesboro tanyard.

38. "Act to Establish an Academy in Hertford County," 20 November 1809, Laws (1809),
25-26. This document named twenty-four trustees.

39. The 1815 Tax List does not include a Wheeler store. Knowledge of their jointly owned
store comes from Dr. Thomas O'Dwyer's 1825 diary (Samuel J. Wheeler papers. Folder 1,
SHC), and Ephraim's death notices in 1824.

40. Hornet's Nest, 1 October 1812, 15 December 1812, 1 June 1813.

41. New York City Directory, 1798, in MESDA Index.

42. E. Frank Stephenson, Renaissance in Carolina II (Murfreesboro, 1973). 101. A payment
to Henry Waring & Son is also listed in Sarah Wheeler's estate accounts (Record of Accounts,
1830-36, p. 457).

43. Hertford County Record of Wills, 1829-1867, 56-58. John Wheeler's will named Negro
slaves received by his marriage to Sarah; Sarah's will named Negro slaves and some furni-
ture among her bequests.

44. F. M. Young, "Final Report: Wheeler Site Excavations, July 1976," North Carolina
Department of Cultural Resources, Archaeology section, unpublished manuscript.

45. Undated letter from Emily Bland Southall to Julia Southall, ca. 1862, Southall-Bowen

86 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

papers, Folders 7-8, SHC. This group of papers includes several 1833 Wheeler letters and is
part of a very large collection to 1906. It was discovered by James Elliott More in )ackson,
N.C., and presented by him to the Southern Historical Collection in 1977.

46. Personal communication, Richard C. Nylander. The Brunschwig & Fils, New
York, reproduction of the Wheeler house wallpaper for restoration is illustrated in Nylan-
der, Wallpapers for Historic Buildings, 2d ed. (Washington, D.Cl: Preservation Press, 1983),

53-

47. Rita Gottesman, The Arts and Crafts in New York, 1800-1804 (New York Historical
Society, 1965), 166-72.

48. The Hornet's Nest mentions the dissolution of the firm "). Clifton and F.dward
Wood" on 22 July 1813. A loose account between Edward Wood and "Williams & Felton,"
1815-16 (John Vann papers, N. C. Archives) details the cost of several stove pipes, suggesting
the availability of stoves in town in 1816.

49. Young, "Final Report." Other architectural theories are based on information pro-
vided during visits to the site with architectural historians A. L. Honeycutt of the N.C.
Preservation Office and Peter Sandbeck, formerly of the Preservation Office, Eastern divi-
sion.

50. Further excavation of the kitchen site is underway in 1994, and reconstruction of the
kitchen house is planned.

51. O'Dvkfyer diary.

52. Waring returned to New York with "Mrs. Wheeler, Mrs. Mullen & little Henr>'"
(Ephraim's son). Since Ephraim's wife died in 1822, this may have been Sarah Wheeler.

33. O'Dwyer diary, 21 February, 21 March, 15 April, 18 April, and 12 May 1825.

54. Ibid., 6 May, 9 May, 15-16 June, 20 June, 4-5 July, and 11 July 1825.

55. Other Murfreesboro artisans in O'Dwyer's diary are coach- or gigmakers Charles
Spiers and Thomas Weston. Ebenezer Slocum was a clockmaker, and Rebecca Taylor a
weaver. "Granny Peg" wove carpets.

56. O'Dwyer diary, 21 March, 15-16 April, 18 April, 12 May 1825.

57. There were free black artisans in the county as well. One mentioned in the diary was
"Nickens," probably a painter, and a member of the free black Nickens family listed in the
1820 census. On 24 May he borrowed two ounces of Prussian blue from O'Dwyer to paint
the preaching room in the Academy.

58. The Raleigh notice of Ephraim's death described him as "recently postmaster." L. S.
Neal, Abstracts of Vital Records from Raleigh North Carolina Newspapers, II 1820-29 (Spar-
tanburg, S.C: Reprint Co., 1979), 741. The Chronicle, on 7 April 1827, published a list of let-
ters left at the post office that was submitted by postmaster John Wheeler.

59. Intelligencer, 23 February 1826. This is the only extant issue of this newspaper, pub-
lished 1825-26.

60. Unpublished notes on Murfreesboro lent to the author by Thomas C. Parramore.

61. In the 1815 Tax List, lots 202 and 203 are listed under Jonas Clifton's estate.

62. Record of Accounts, 1830-36, 492.

63. "On 20 March 1826, Mrs Gordon, George Gordon's widow, conveyed her dower
interest in the lots to James Morgan and L.M. Cowper, with John Wheeler as third party to
the contract." Parramore notes.

64. Facsimile on exhibit in City Hall, Murfreesboro. According to the document, seven
town commisioners were appointed in 1825.

65. Samuel J. Wheeler, "History of the Meherrin Church," North Carolina Baptist Histor-
ical Papers, I, (Henderson, NC: North Carolina Baptist Historical Society, 1896-97), 49.

66. Thomas C. Parramore, "A Passage to Monrovia," paper presented at Chowan Col-
lege, Murfreesboro, 1973.

67. Wills, 1829-67, A56-58. A lawsuit was instigated by Williaim Barnes, Eliza Ann
Clifton's father-in-law. The executors paid up.

MAY 1994 87

68. "Estate of John Wheeler Dect. in Acct. with James WoreJI and John H. Wheeler
Exrs.," Record of Accounts, 1836-40, 108.

69. Wills, 1829-67, A56.

70. Record of Accounts, 1830-36.

71. Hornet's Nest, 5 April 1813.

72. North Carolina Chronicle, 30 June 1827.

73. Sarah McCuIloh Lemon, ed.. The Pettigrew Papers, 2 (Raleigh, N.C., 1971), 151.

74. MESDA Index.

75. Record of Accounts, 1836-1840, 107. 1-Je was owed 88 cents by the estate in May 1833.

76. Record of Accounts, 1830-36, 274-85. He owed Wheeler $21.03 (Record of Accounts,
1836-1840, 104).

77. North Carolina Chronicle, 16 June 1827; George Dunn estate sale, 13 June 1830, in
Record of Accounts, 1830-36, 9.

78. Thomas C. Parramore, Cradle of the Co/owy (Edenton, N.C., 1967). President Monroe
arrived in Edenton on the steamboat Albemarle on 4 April 1819.

79. Edenton Gazette, 18 December 1818.

80. Kate Wheeler diary. Eastern Carolina University Special Collections, Greenville, S.C.;
Samuel J. Wheeler diaries, SHC.

81. Deed of 3 January 1844 witnessed by J. H. Wheeler and signed by G. C. Moore on 7
August 1868 (Deeds, A378).

82. Samuel J. Wheeler diary, 10 December 1866; Thornton W. Mitchell, North Carolina
Wills: A Testator Index 1665-1900. A proviso in the will was that none of the property willed
to Lucinda was to go to pay Samuel's debts.

83. Record of Accounts (1830-36), 492-493.

84. Ibid., 247-49, 285-87, 326, 344.

JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

BOOK REVIEWS

Luke Beckerdite, ed. American Furniture. (Milwaukee, Wiscon-
sin: Chipstone Foundation, 1993. Distributed by University Press
of New England. Pp. xiii, 298, b/w and color illus., index. Paper,

$45.00. ISSN 1069-4188, ISBN 0-87451-648-X.)

With the birth of American Furniture, a significant annual con-
tribution to "furniture made or used in the Americas from the sev-
enteenth century to the present" has begun. This interdisciplinary
journal, devoted to new research encompassing furniture history,
technology, connoisseurship, and conservation, will fill a lacuna
obvious since the emergence of the English journals Furniture His-
tory in 1965 and Regional Furniture in 1987. Funded by the Chip-
stone Foundation, this journal aptly demonstrates an extension of
the vision and resources of Stanley Stone and Polly Mariner Stone,
who assembled an impressive collection of American furniture,
American historical prints, and early English pottery.

This inaugural issue, edited by Luke Beckerdite, reflects a deter-
mination for quality and promise that can make America proud.
Beckerdite begins the volume with a brief chronology of American
furniture scholarship, from the 1891 publication of Irving W.
Lyon's Colonial Furniture of New England to the present, in the
process revealing the 1987-1988 genesis of American Furniture. The
eleven articles, two book reviews, and one review article cover sub-
jects ranging from early eighteenth-century Boston furniture to
early twentieth-century Scandinavian craftsmanship in California.

"Protective Covers for Furniture and Its Contents" by Linda
Baumgarten offers fine documentation and detail photographs for
surviving evidence in America and England. The embossed leather
table and commode covers of English origin, and the London
clothespress with its evidence for green baize clothes covers for
each tray, offer new insights for the scholar and collector. This is
also true of the evidence cited for easy-chair case covers over a

frame with only a linen covering and no evidence for a final cover
being nailed on. This all-too-short article left this reader wanting
more.

Luke Beckerdite has contributed a remarkable article in "Origins
of the Rococo Style in New York Furniture and Interior Architec-
ture," in which he connects the wonderful interior carving of the
Philipse Manor in Yonkers, New York, to equally fine carving on
several examples of furniture, all which he believes to be attribut-
able to the carving shop of Henry Hardcastle. This reader could
not connect the link between the fine deep carving on several
examples of furniture and the flatter (less skilled?) carving on a
Charleston chair. Beckerdite uses this chair as the basis for
attributing a large group of architectural and furniture carving to
Henry Hardcastle because he was the "only New York carver
known to have moved to Charleston before the Revolution." The
field of attribution based on carving technique is one left to a nar-
row field of specialists. Such assuredness in making connections
like this runs the danger of mystifying many curators and collec-
tors.

"The Stock-in-Trade of John Hancock and Company" by David
Conradsen offers an extensive 1835 inventory of this Philadelphia
company after a brief introduction. What this reader found lack-
ing was an analysis of the inventory that would have offered a
more in-depth understanding of the company.

Edward S. Cooke's "Scandinavian Modern Furniture in the Arts
and Crafts Period: The Collaboration of the Greenes and Halls"
provides an overview of connections between designers and crafts-
men and the resulting design influences and construction. A slight
drawback to the article was the lack of good photographs illustrat-
ing the "blind tongue-and-groove joints" or the "Swedish joint"
that marks a Scandinavian craftsman. The X-rays of joints of the
chair produced in the Hall shop for the Robert Blacker house in
Pasadena, California, during 1908-1909 revealed unexpected rough
construction features. It would have been useful to compare this
with an example of Scandinavian furniture and its "Swedish joint."

Nancy Coyne Evans's contribution, "Design Transmission in
Vernacular Seating Furniture: The Influence of Philadelphia and

92 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

Baltimore Styles on Chairmaking from the Chesapeake Bay to the
'West,'" reveals a wonderful understanding of the Windsor chair
and its regional characteristics, aptly demonstrated from Philadel-
phia to Ohio. To simplify the reader's understanding, Evans illus-
trates mostly side chairs and avoids the many variances found in
arms. Aside from learning new terminology, this reader now
understands the continuance of the Windsor through 1880 —
which raises the question, has it ever ceased being made?

In "American or English Furniture? Some Choices in the 1760s,"
Graham Hood uses his own documentary research for the Gover-
nor's Palace in Williamsburg to reveal the taste of Norborne Berke-
ley, baron de Botetourt, as he became governor of Williamsburg.
Hood demonstrates how the perceived need for status apparently
determined Botetourt's purchasing furniture from the London
cabinetmaker William Fenton instead of what was available in
Williamsburg. This revealing study ends with the September 1768
through July 1769 Botetourt account with Fenton for furnishings.
A study such as this sets a standard according to which the atti-
tudes of royal governors of other colonies regarding furnishings
and status can be analyzed.

Gregory Landrey's "The Conservator as Curator: Combining
Scientific Analysis and Traditional Connoisseurship" demonstrates
the range of disciplines American Furniture will offer. Through its
analysis of "the order and nature of surface stratigraphy" of Win-
terthur's wonderful "lamb-and-ewe" chest-on-chest, this article
offers readers rare insights into the mind's eye of the conservator.
Landrey begins with a study of the probable Francis Barlow design
source for the lamb-and-ewe carved applique on the scrollboard.
Microscopic cross-sections of the chest's finish, reproduced in
color with layers clearly marked, illustrate the techniques a conser-
vator draws upon to determine whether a finish is original or not,
and offers a new view for many of us in the furniture field. This is
definitely a new refreshing approach for most furniture historians
who are now looking more closely at furniture.

"Roman Gusto in New England: An Eighteenth-Century Boston
Furniture Designer and His Shop," by Alan Miller, contains mag-
nificent block-front furniture produced from the 1730s through

MAY 1994 93

the 1750s that demonstrates the "late-seventeenth-century baroque
style, Palladian classicism" of a yet unidentified designer. The style
introduced by this person influenced Boston furniture from the
mid-i730s to the 1780s by the way it made architectural statements
with furniture. Miller connects furniture carving to architectural
carving and picture frame carving; to further tempt the palate, he
also introduces painted shells. This article is exciting in that the
photographs are excellent and the material makes the reader
reflect on the quality and importance of this furniture group.

In the first of two articles on easy chairs, Robert F. Trent briefly
reveals his thoughts in "Mid-Atlantic Easy Chairs, 1770-1820: Old
Questions and New Evidence." The article focuses on a wonderful
easy chair, recently identified as Charleston, South Carolina, in the
Winterthur collection. What is amazing about this chair, aside
from its high style and fine carving, is that its true nature is that of
a close-stool easy chair. Just how the chair functioned as such, how
it was originally covered, and the rational for its placement in a
bedchamber are discussed here. Any questions Trent leaves unan-
swered regarding style and construction are satisfied by the subse-
quent article he has coauthored with Mark Anderson, "A Cata-
logue of American Easy Chairs." Here they investigate easy-chair
upholstery construction, citing examples from Philadelphia; possi-
bly Winchester, Virginia; New York; New Jersey; and New Eng-
land. This reader, knowing of the many Southern examples in the
MESDA files, would like to have seen comparisons with the South.
The influence of English construction techniques and guidelines
from American price books is effectively interwoven with pho-
tographs that illustrate both regional and temporal variations,
uncovering for the reader an aspect of easy chairs rarely seen. One
finishes this article with a new respect for canvas fragments and
nail patterns (or the lack thereof) on easy chairs and wanting more
information on the use of board linings and the search for close
stool evidence. The misplacement of two photographs (figs. 31 and
33) in this article acknowledges that even in the best of publica-
tions something can go awry.

Gerald W R. Ward and Karin E. CuUity's "The Wendell Family
Furniture at Strawbery Banke Museum" reveals the contents of the

94 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

1789 Wendell house of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The house
was purchased by Jacob Wendell in 1815 and retained in the family
until 1988, when the contents were sold. The authors have grouped
the furniture for study into the eighteenth and nineteenth cen-
turies. Utilizing inventories, photographs, and documents, they
have produced a remarkable volume of knowledge concerning
purchasing and family chronology. This reader finished the article
wanting something similar written about a Southern home, if a
subject with such potential exists.

What Luke Beckerdite and the Chipstone Foundation have initi-
ated is a remarkable accomplishment; future issues will be eagerly
awaited. Finally, here is a powerful statement regarding the level of
interest and quality of research American furniture has achieved.
Two minor additions, an address for the editorial offices at the
Chipstone Foundation, and an section identifying the contribu-
tors, would enhance the value of this journal for furniture schol-
ars, but their absence does not obscure its merit. What a wonder-
ful example of a new American publication long overdue.

Bradford L. Rauschenberg
Director of Research
Old Salem/MESDA

MAY 1994 95

Carl R. Lounsbury, ed. An Illustrated Glossary of Early Southern
Architecture and Landscape. (New York 8c Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1994. Pp. xiv, 430. Cloth, $75.00, isbn 0-19-50799-2.)

It takes exceptional patience, organizational skills, and an un-
daunted spirit (or perhaps excellent institutional support and
many supportive colleagues) to undertake a successful illustrated
glossary. That is probably why so few are attempted and fewer still
are successfully carried out. Dr. Carl Lounsbury, architectural his-
torian for Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, with editorial assis-
tance from Vanessa E. Patrick, appears to have all of this and more.
With over 1,500 entries and 300 illustrations and photographs. An
Illustrated Glossary of Early Southern Architecture and Landscape is
a watershed publication at several levels.

The glossary considers for the first time the importance of how
information is communicated within the building trades. Specifi-
cally, Lounsbury goes beyond the standard architectural-dictio-
nary approach of simply providing definitions and illustrations.
Unlike so many before him, he has avoided falling into the trap of
only looking at earlier versions of dictionaries and rehashing often
poorly understood terms. He has come, instead, as close as possi-
ble to overhearing the conversation and instructions of those on
the building sites of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nine-
teenth centuries. He has combed the original documents of the
period — listed in his extensive bibliography — for references to
construction technology, building types, building materials, and
vocabulary. This forms the basis for developing a definition appro-
priate to a word's early usage. In the preface Lounsbury describes
how terms vary with time and place, and explains that the termi-
nology used today is often not applicable for earlier times.

The glossary begins with a general definition based on a fusion

of original documentation. This is usually followed by citations or
examples, taken from primary sources, of the word's usage. These
are typically the earliest appearance of the term, an indication of
the duration of its use, or its geographic range. Significantly, the
glossary includes terms that only an architectural historian could
love and that are thus missing from the more common architec-
tural dictionaries. But the glossary is more than simply an inven-
tory of obscure molding profiles from the classical orders. Louns-
bury includes the full range of building types, from the public
building in all its variations to houses, churches, and outbuildings;
for example, the terms privy, necessary house, and boghoiise are all
cited here. Further, Lounsbury provides definitions for various
building technologies and materials, such as wrought compared to
cut nails or crown compared to cyUnder glass. So if you have always
wondered about Coade stone or what the difference between
weatherboard and clapboard is, if you are confused about the diff-
erence between a muntin and a muUion, or if your spell checker
refuses to acknowledge the existence of the terms crossette, espalier,
or triglyph, this is the book for you.

As a rule there are two or three illustrations on every two-page
spread. These illustrations take the form of line drawings, early
and modern photographs, and early prints, lithographs, and
paintings. Although there seems to be space for additional images,
the ones present are clear and extremely useful.

Another significant aspect of this book is the editor's insightful
introduction. In this short but concise commentary on the vocab-
ulary of the building trades in the south, Lounsbury examines the
complexity and diversity of English building traditions and how
they would have been pared down by builders of the Am.erican
South to meet their own particular needs. Although artisans came
from England equipped with English tools and traditions, eco-
nomic, social, and environmental forces transformed their
approach to architecture. This transformation occurs as part of a
movement away from the open hall of the medieval dwelling to a
household of more private and specialized spaces. In the South
this specialization is witnessed by the rise of numerous outbuild-
ings and the segregation of functions apart from the dwelling. It

can be documented by the increasing complexity of building con-
tracts, the use of plans and professional architects, and the rise of
specialized professional builders. Exposed carved framing, with its
chamfers and integral moldings, was abandoned in favor of
smooth surfaces that enclosed and disguised the structural ele-
ments, thus encouraging the use of cornices, joinery, and plaster
work. These changes in both building form and technology would
generate a whole new vocabulary. Room specialization, for exam-
ple, led to the use of the terms dining room, library, bedchamber,
and passage. In the South a wide range of outbuildings and terms
developed, thus giving rise to bakehouse, springhouse, dairy, wash
house, or, to make a finer distinction, hen houses in the Chesapeake
and/ow/ houses in the Carolina Low Country. Lounsbury is able to
map how these changes occurred from the late seventeenth and
into the eighteenth century through the study of contracts,
accounts, and inventories.

A book of this complexity and scope will always have its defi-
ciencies. Lounsbury fully acknowledges the limitations on the title
page with a quote from Samuel Johnson: "Dictionaries are like
watches; the worst is better than none, the best cannot be expected
to go quite true." Some may wish for larger or more numerous
illustrations; some may find their favorite obscure term missing.
Folks from the states of the deep South may feel excluded by the
early nineteenth-century cut-off date but, as Lounsbury explains,
the latter part of that century is marked by so much change and
complexity that to include it would diffuse the focus of the book.
A termination date of 1820 has been used by MESDA since its
opening in 1965; although limiting, it is equally justifiable. Those
of the deep South need not be too offended, however, for they are
joined by Germans, Spanish, and Native and African Americans as
casualties of this effort to remain focused and do a job well.

Perhaps this glossary will stimulute renewed interest among stu-
dents of language as well as of architecture, so that in the future we
can anticipate additional historical references that will adjust the
dates or usage of terms. Such discoveries would be exciting and
welcome, for knowledge is not stagnant. The continuous effort at
MESDA to collect data has proven that knowledge is acquired only

98 JOURNAL OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

through constant probing, examination, and discussion. Louns-
bury has given us the opportunity to begin that discussion. Per-
haps his glossary can be seen as not just a collection of terms, but
rather a new way to approach architecture and how builders and
occupants communicated with each other and their built environ-
ment.

A word of warning: you may not read the book from cover to
cover, but you will probably find yourself compulsively scanning
the pages and reading terms, text, and quotes. This book is well
composed, comfortable to handle, and captivating in its detail.
The question remains wheter it will actually change the way we
communicate about buildings. If scholarship has any impact on
how we think, however, this glossary has charted a new direction,
one all concerned with accuracy should embrace. But be careful —
unless you are talking about a seawall, avoid the term bulkhead to
describe a cellar entrance in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
buildings. The correct term is cellar-cap; bulkhead did not come
into common usage until the mid-nineteenth century. There! At
last I have repented in print for all the times I used it incorrectly.

John C. Larson

Vice President for Restoration

Old Salem/MESDA

MAY 1994 99

MEMBERSHIP IN MESDA

Members of MESDA receive the Journal of Early Southern Decorative
Arts, published in May and November, and the MESDA newsletter, the
Luminary, published in February and August. Other privileges include
notification of the classes, programs, and lectures offered by the
museum, participation in Members' Weekend, with symposium on col-
lecting and decorative arts research, a 10% discount on bookstore pur-
chases, and free admission to general tours of MESDA and Old Salem.

MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES

Benefactor*

Patron

$500 and up

Sustaining

$100-499

Corporate or Foundation

$150 and up

Supporting

$50 to $99

Family

$40

Individual

$30

Library (Journal only)

$25

*Persons who contribute valuable antiquities to MESDA are
considered Benefactors. Once named a Benefactor, a person
remains such for life and enjoys all privileges of membership in
MESDA.

Overseas members please add $10.00 for airmail postage.

For further information about benefits of membership, please write
the Membership Coordinator, MESDA, P.O. Box 10310, Winston-Salem,
North Carolina 27108-0310. Telephone (910) 721-7360.

THE MUSEUM OF EARLY SOUTHERN DECORATIVE ARTS

HOBART G. c Awo o D , President, Old Salem, Inc.

FRANK L. HORT ON, Director Emeritus

SALLY GANT, Dircctor, Education and Special Events
RUTH BROOKS, Associate in Education

PAULA Y. HOOPER, Coordinator of Membership Services

PAULA LOCKLAiR, Dircctor, Department of Collections
JOHANNA METZGAR, Assistant Curator and Registrar
JENNIFER ABER, Collcctions Assistaut

BRADFORD L. RAu scHEN BERG , Director, Department of Research

WHALEY BAT SON, Paintings Consultant

NANCY BEAN, Officc Manager

RICHARD MURDOCH, Librarian

MARTHA ROWE, Research Associate

WESLEY STEWART, Photographer

CORNELIA B. \^ RIGHT , Editor of PubUcations

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